Wednesday 17 August 2016

homework and exercises - Path of a light ray in a medium of varying refractive index



How do we get the equation for the path of a light ray in a medium of varying refractive index.


I can draw a rough sketch, but don't know how do we get the exact curve.



I encountered this while doing a problem:



A ray of light travelling in air makes a grazing incidence on a rectangular slab of transparent medium with one vertex at the origin & (sides along x and y axes.)



The refractive index of the material varies as $N=2x$. The path of the light ray is given by?


(The ray makes a grazing incidence nearly parallel to x axis from -ve to +ve x axis but just enough to enter the first quadrant; where the slab lies.)




No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...