Refraction and optics
In the previous post I talked about the human eye and how it uses refraction. Today we will go into more detail about refraction. Refraction is light bending when it changes medium as it travels. This is what causes a pen to look like it's bending when you put it in water. Sometimes, light bends inwards and sometimes bends outwards depending on the speed of each medium. The fastest speed the light can go at is in vacuum which is a massive number, nearly 300,000 km/s, which means that light can go around the earth 7.5 times in second. Let's put it this way, if you were a photon you would never be late for school. In other mediums light travels slower. Scientists use something called the "refraction index" to compare the speed of light in vacuum vs another medium n is the refraction index in a given medium c is the speed of light in vacuum v is the speed of light in that medium This table has some sample refraction indexes for transparent mediums. So, for example the in...