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Physics Help - Snell's Law?

I'm not looking for the actual answer, but a step by step on how to solve it, and an answer on if I'm setting the problem up properly to solve it.

Problem: A light ray beginning in fused quartz (n=1.46) makes an angle of 45° with the normal line. Upon entering unknown material, the light ray is refracted and makes an angle of 22° with the normal line. Find the index of refraction for the unknown material. Use Snell's Law.

Snell's Law: n1 sin θ1= n2 sin θ2. (subscript the 1s and 2s)

I think this is how I set it up to solve it:

1.46 sin45 = n2 sin22 (subscript 2 on n2)

But from there, I'm not sure how to solve for n2 (subscript 2 on n2).

1 Answer

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  • DH
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    You have (1.46*sin(45))/sin(22) = n2 = 2.76

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