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For example, for visible light, the refractive index of glass is typically around 1.5, meaning that light in glass travels at c / 1.5 ≈ 200 000 km/s (124 000 mi/s); the refractive index of air for visible light is about 1.0003, so the speed of light in air is about 90 km/s (56 mi/s) slower than c.
κ can have values between 0 and 1. In the extreme as κ approaches 1, light might propagate in one direction instantaneously, provided it takes the entire round-trip time to travel in the opposite direction. Following Edwards and Winnie, Anderson et al. formulated generalized Lorentz transformations for arbitrary boosts of the form: [2]
In 1845, Michael Faraday discovered that the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light is rotated when the light rays travel along the magnetic field direction in the presence of a transparent dielectric, an effect now known as Faraday rotation. [39] This was the first evidence that light was related to electromagnetism.
The electric and magnetic field waves in the far-field travel at the speed of light. They have a special restricted orientation and proportional magnitudes, E 0 = c 0 B 0 {\displaystyle E_{0}=c_{0}B_{0}} , which can be seen immediately from the Poynting vector .
Snell's law is used to determine the direction of light rays through refractive media with varying indices of refraction. The indices of refraction of the media, labeled n 1 {\displaystyle n_{1}} , n 2 {\displaystyle n_{2}} and so on, are used to represent the factor by which a light ray's speed decreases when traveling through a refractive ...
When light enters a slower medium at an angle, one side of the wavefront is slowed before the other. This asymmetrical slowing of the light causes it to change the angle of its travel. Once light is within the new medium with constant properties, it travels in a straight line again.
In neither case does the light travel from the source to the object faster than c, nor does any information travel faster than light. No object is moving in these examples. For comparison, consider water squirting out of a garden hose as it is swung side to side: water does not instantly follow the direction of the hose. [6] [7] [8]
When light enters a material with higher refractive index, the angle of refraction will be smaller than the angle of incidence and the light will be refracted towards the normal of the surface. The higher the refractive index, the closer to the normal direction the light will travel.