Snell's law

(noun)

A formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction.

Related Terms

Examples of Snell's law in the following topics:

  • The Law of Refraction: Snell's Law and the Index of Refraction

    • The exact mathematical relationship is the law of refraction, or "Snell's Law," which is stated in equation form as:
    • The law of refraction is also called Snell's law after the Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snell, who discovered it in 1621.
    • Snell's experiments showed that the law of refraction was obeyed and that a characteristic index of refraction n could be assigned to a given medium.
    • This video introduces refraction with Snell's Law and the index of refraction.The second video discusses total internal reflection (TIR) in detail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?

  • Total Internal Reflection and Fiber Optics

    • The angle of incidence is measured with respect to the normal at the refractive boundary (see diagram illustrating Snell's law).
    • The critical angle $\theta_c$ is given by Snell's law, $n_1\sin\theta_1 = n_2\sin\theta_2$.

  • Refraction

    • Essentially, it is a surface phenomenon—mainly in governance to the law of conservation of energy and momentum.
    • Refraction is described by Snell's law, which states that for a given pair of media and a wave with a single frequency, the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence θ1 and angle of refraction θ2 is equivalent to the ratio of phase velocities (v1/v2) in the two media, or equivalently, to the opposite ratio of the indices of refraction (n2/n1):
    • Formulate the law of conservation of energy and momentum as it is applied to refraction

  • Total Polarization

    • Using Snell's law (n1sinθ1 = n2sinθ2), one can calculate the incident angle θ1 = B at which no light is reflected: $n_1 \sin \left( \theta_\mathrm B \right) =n_2 \sin \left( 90^\circ - \theta_\mathrm B \right)=n_2 \cos \left( \theta_\mathrm B \right).

  • Gauss's Law

    • Gauss's law is a law relating the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field.
    • Gauss's law can be used to derive Coulomb's law, and vice versa.
    • In fact, Gauss's law does hold for moving charges, and in this respect Gauss's law is more general than Coulomb's law.
    • Gauss's law has a close mathematical similarity with a number of laws in other areas of physics, such as Gauss's law for magnetism and Gauss's law for gravity.
    • In fact, any "inverse-square law" can be formulated in a way similar to Gauss's law: For example, Gauss's law itself is essentially equivalent to the inverse-square Coulomb's law, and Gauss's law for gravity is essentially equivalent to the inverse-square Newton's law of gravity.

  • A Review of the Zeroth Law

    • Zeroth law justifies the use of thermodynamic temperature, defined as the shared temperature of three designated systems at equilibrium.
    • This law was postulated in the 1930s, after the first and second laws of thermodynamics had been developed and named.
    • It is called the "zeroth" law because it comes logically before the first and second laws (discussed in Atoms on the 1st and 2nd laws).
    • A brief introduction to the zeroth and 1st laws of thermodynamics as well as PV diagrams for students.
    • Discuss how the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics justifies the use of thermodynamic temperature

  • Faraday's Law of Induction and Lenz' Law

    • This relationship is known as Faraday's law of induction.
    • The minus sign in Faraday's law of induction is very important.
    • Lenz' law is a manifestation of the conservation of energy.
    • Lenz' law is a consequence.
    • Express the Faraday’s law of induction in a form of equation

  • Hooke's Law

    • Many weighing machines, such as scales, use Hooke's Law to measure the mass of an object.
    • In simple terms, Hooke's law says that stress is directly proportional to strain.
    • Mathematically, Hooke's law is stated as:
    • In such a case, Hooke's law can still be applied.
    • The red line in this graph illustrates how force, F, varies with position according to Hooke's law.

  • Introduction and Importance

    • Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equations first published by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1845.
    • Kirchhoff, rather, used Georg Ohm's work as a foundation for Kirchhoff's current law (KCL) and Kirchhoff's voltage law (KVL).
    • Kirchhoff's laws are extremely important to the analysis of closed circuits.
    • As a final note, Kirchhoff's laws depend on certain conditions.
    • The voltage law is a simplification of Faraday's law of induction, and is based on the assumption that there is no fluctuating magnetic field within the closed loop.

  • The Second Law

    • The second law of thermodynamics deals with the direction taken by spontaneous processes.
    • The law that forbids these processes is called the second law of thermodynamics .
    • Like all natural laws, the second law of thermodynamics gives insights into nature, and its several statements imply that it is broadly applicable, fundamentally affecting many apparently disparate processes.
    • We will express the law in other terms later on, most importantly in terms of entropy.
    • Contrast the concept of irreversibility between the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics