Question

1.A ray of light comes from a medium with an index of refraction of 2, strikes the surface of a diamond at an angle of 40º and forms an angle of refraction of 10º. What is the index of refraction of a diamond?

Answer 1

Given,

The refractive index of the medium, n₁=2

The angle of incidence, i=40°

The angle of refraction. r=10°

From Snell's law, we have,

$\begin{gathered} n_1\sin i=n_2\sin r \\ \Rightarrow n_2=\frac{n_1\sin i}{\sin r} \end{gathered}$

On substituting the known values,

$\begin{gathered} n_2=\frac{2\times\sin40^{\circ}}{\sin10^{\circ}} \\ =7.4 \end{gathered}$

Thus the refractive index obtained is 7.4