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Waves Refraction using Huygens’ Principle (continued) The next diagram shows how to use Huygens’ principle to produce a simple equation to predict how a set of waves will move when going from one medium to another.
Angles ABC and ADC are 90°.
which gives us
which means that, for a given pair of media, the ratio, sinq1 to sinq2 is a constant (equal to v1/v2). This fact is easily verified by experiment. It is frequently applied to light "waves" and is called Snell’s law of refraction. The angle between a normal line and the direction of propagation in medium one is called the angle of incidence (equal to q1). The angle between a normal line and the direction of propagation in medium two is called the angle of refraction (equal to q2).
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© David Hoult 2009 |
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