Waves : 1 Dimensional Waves
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Light

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Light moves in a vacuum at a speed of  . In transparent materials it moves at a speed less than   by a factor   which is called the refractive index of the material:

 

Often the refractive index takes the form

 

where   is the wavenumber and   and   are constants characteristic of the material. The angular frequency of light in a transparent medium is thus

 

so the frequency increases slightly with increasing k. Typically, when k is near kR, the material becomes opaque.

Ultimately, this is due to resonance between the light and the atoms of the materials.


Waves : 1 Dimensional Waves
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13
Examples - Problems - Solutions - Terminology