Before light can undergo total internal reflection when incident on material 2 from material 1,what must be true of the indices of refraction? A)n₁ = n₂ B)n₁ n₂ D)Either n₁ or n₂ must be equal to 1.

Question

Before light can undergo total internal reflection when incident on material 2 from material 1,what must be true of the indices of refraction? A)n₁ = n₂ B)n₁ < n₂ C)n₁ > n₂ D)Either n₁ or n₂ must be equal to 1.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Total internal reflection occurs when the incident angle is greater than the critical angle, which is dependent on the indices of refraction of the two materials involved. The critical angle can be calculated using Snell's Law: sin(critical angle) = n2/n1, where n1 is the index of refraction of the first material (in this case, material 1) and n2 is the index of refraction of the second material (in this case, material 2). Therefore, for total internal reflection to occur, n2 must be smaller than n1, meaning that n1 > n2. This corresponds to answer choice C.

Before Light Can Undergo Total Internal Reflection When Incident on Material