Question

the speed of light in a piece of plastic is 2.00x10^8 meters per second what is the absolute index of refraction of this plastic

Answer 1

The speed of light in a material with refractive index n is modified according to the following law:

`v= (c)/(n)`
where c is the speed of light in vacuum (
`c=3\cdot 10^8 m/s`), while v is the speed of light in the medium (
`v=2 \cdot 10^8 m/s`). Re-arranging, we can find the refractive index of this plastic:

`n= (c)/(v)= (3 \cdot 10^8 m/s)/(2 \cdot 10^8 m/s)=1.5`