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Refraction

Refraction in Water

Refraction in Water

An object (in this case a pencil) partially immersed in water looks bent due to refraction: the light waves from X change direction and so seem to originate at Y. (More accurately, for any angle of view, Y should be vertically above X, and the pencil should appear shorter, not longer as shown. )

Source

    Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:

    "Refraction."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction Wikipedia CC BY.

Related Terms

  • Snell's law
  • refractive index
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