A ray in air strikes a transparent material at 90 degrees to the normal and is refracted at 30 degrees. What is the refractive index of the material?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: B. 2

  1. Step 1: Snell's law: n1 sin(t1) = n2 sin(t2) with n1 = 1.
  2. Step 2: n2 = sin(90) / sin(30) = 2.
Answer
2.
Why not the others: The index is the ratio sin(angle in air) / sin(angle in the material); the other values correspond to other angle pairs.

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