Snell'hls Law I.

History
Ptolemy, a Greek living in Alexandria had found a relationship between refracting angles, but it eas inaccurate for angles that were not small. Alhozen, in his BOOK of OPTICS (1021) came closer to discovering the law of refraction, though he did not take his step. The law of refraction was first accurately described by Ibn Sahl, in the manuscript of On BURNING MIRRORS AND LENSES. (1984) The law was rediscovered by Thomas Harriot (1602), who however didnot publish his results although he had corresponded with Kepler on this very subject. Willebrord Snellius (Snell) derived a mathematically equal form. Rene Descartes derived the law in his 1637 treatise DISCOURSE IN METHOD, and used it to solve a range of optical problems.

II. Definition
A. Snell's Law The quantitative means of answering the question of "By how much does the light ray refract?" Snell's law gives the relationship between angle of incidence and refraction for a wave impinging on the interface between the two media with different indices of refraction. The law follows from the boundary condition that a wave be continuous across a boundary which requires that the phase of the wave be constant onany give plane, resulting in: n(arrow under 1)sinO/0(arrow under, 1)=n(arrow under 2)sinO/0(arrow under, 2), where n(arrow under, 1 )=index of refraction(incident ray) n(arrow under, 2)= index of refraction (refracted ray)

sin=sine O(arrow under, 1)=angle of incidence O(arrow under, 2)= angle of refraction

B. Index of refraction, Sine, Angle of incidence, Angle of Refraction a. Index of Refraction - The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in a medium under consideration. Also called refractive index. The index of refraction is defined by n=c/v^phase where c is the speed of light (299 792 4458 m/s) v^phase is the phase velocity (rate of which the phase of the wave propagation in space). -The index of refraction depends on what material the light ray passes through. The dense is the material; the greater is the index of refraction.

List of some materials and their refractive indices: Material Vacuum Air Ice Water at 2 degree C Sugar solution Index 1.00000 1.00029 1.31 1.33 1.38

(30%) Sugar Solution (80%) Sodium Chloride Heavy flint glass Sapphire Diamond 1.54 1.65 1.77 2.417 1.49

b. Sine In mathermatics, the sine function is a function of an angle. In a right triangle, it is the ratio of the length of the side to the length of the hypotenuse.

c. Angle of Incidence The angle of incidence (o(arrow under,1 ) of a ray or beam is the angle measured from the incident ray to the surface normal.

d. Angle of Refraction The angle of refraction (o(arrow under,2 ) of a ray or a beam is the angle measured from the reflected ray to the surface normal.

ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE NOTEBOOK OR PAPER...