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Total internal refraction

Why does the relative refractive index for speeds between 2 materials need to be lower than 1 for TIR to occur, and how would it be like for refractive indices instead of speed?
Reply 1
Original post by Jennifer50
Why does the relative refractive index for speeds between 2 materials need to be lower than 1 for TIR to occur, and how would it be like for refractive indices instead of speed?


TIR is total internal reflection, not refraction. It happens when the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, from a more optically dense material to a less optically dense one.
I'm not sure what you are asking about speeds?
Reply 2
Original post by TheBride
TIR is total internal reflection, not refraction. It happens when the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, from a more optically dense material to a less optically dense one.
I'm not sure what you are asking about speeds?


Exactly what he said, and regarding the speed, the wave speeds up as it is refrated from a more dense to less dense medium hence the angle of refraction is greater than the angle of incidence
Reply 3
Original post by voltz
Exactly what he said, and regarding the speed, the wave speeds up as it is refrated from a more dense to less dense medium hence the angle of refraction is greater than the angle of incidence

It was a question on the aqa as physics paper 2 specimen paper
Original post by Jennifer50
Why does the relative refractive index for speeds between 2 materials need to be lower than 1 for TIR to occur, and how would it be like for refractive indices instead of speed?


We'll start with Snell's law nisin(θi)=nrsin(θr)n_isin(\theta_i)=n_rsin(\theta_r)

if we set the beam to be the minimum angle of incidence that produces TIR then θr=90\theta_r = 90

this means that nisin(θi)=nrn_isin(\theta_i) = n_r

since 0sin(θ)1,0θ900 \leq sin(\theta) \leq 1, 0 \leq \theta \leq 90

nrni1\frac{n_r}{n_i} \leq 1
Original post by Jennifer50
Why does the relative refractive index for speeds between 2 materials need to be lower than 1 for TIR to occur, and how would it be like for refractive indices instead of speed?


Also the speed of light in a material is related to the refractive index by

n=cvn = \frac{c}{v} where c is the speed of light in vacuo and v is the speed of light in the medium.

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