Light travels 875 km in material “x” in 5.00 ms. Calculate the speed of light in the material and the material’s index of refraction

Respuesta :

1. Speed of light in the material: [tex]1.75\cdot 10^8 m/s[/tex]

The speed of light in a material is defined as follows:

[tex]v=\frac{d}{t}[/tex]

where

d is the distance travelled by light in the material

t is the time taken

In this problem, we have

[tex]d=875 km = 8.75\cdot 10^5 m[/tex] is the distance travelled in the material

[tex]t=5.00 ms=0.005 s[/tex] is the time taken

So, the speed of light in the material is

[tex]v=\frac{8.75\cdot 10^5 m}{0.005 s}=1.75\cdot 10^8 m/s[/tex]

2. Index of refraction: 1.71

The index of refraction of a material is defined as:

[tex]n=\frac{c}{v}[/tex]

where

[tex]c=3.00\cdot 10^8 m/s[/tex] is the speed of light in a vacuum

v is the speed of light in the material

For this material, we have

[tex]v=1.75\cdot 10^8 m/s[/tex]

So, the index of refraction is

[tex]n=\frac{3.00\cdot 10^8 m/s}{1.75\cdot 10^8 m/s}=1.71[/tex]