What is refraction of light?

Refraction is the bending of light when traveling from one medium to another medium. The bending of light is caused by the differences between the densities of the two mediums. An example of refraction is the bending of the sun's rays as they enter raindrops, forming a rainbow.

Laws of refraction

1) The incident ray,  refracted ray, and the normal to the interface of any two given mediums, all lie in the same plane.

2) The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence and sine of the angle of refraction is constant for the light of a given color and for the given pair of media. This law is known as snell's law of refraction. That ratio is also called a refractive index.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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