NATS 1575 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Toughened Glass, Birefringence, Laminated Glass
Document Summary
Refractive index- the ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to that in the medium under velocity of light examination. It is the velocity of light in a vacuum divided by the in glass. Light waves in air at a constant velocity until they penetrate another medium, such as glass or water, at which point they are suddenly slowed, causing the rays to bend. At 25 degrees, the refractive index of water is 1. 333. 1. 33 x velocity of light in water = vel. of light in vacuum. Like density, refractive index is an intensive property and will serve to characterize a substance. Crystalline solids have definite geometric forms because of the orderly arrangement of their atoms. These solids refract a beam of light in two different light ray components. Birefringence is the numerical difference between these two refractive indices.