Question

I have learnt that sin i/sin r is equal to a constant (Snell’s law).AND that constant is equal to the refractive index of second medium with respect to the first .
Also n1sin i= n2sin r .
So using this formula how do you obtain the refractive index of second medium????
I am confused as I got n2/n1 = sin i/sin r .
But shouldn’t this be the refractive index of medium 1 . PLEASE HELP ME !
I AM ASKING THIS QUESTION FOR THE SECOND TIME AS I WAS NOT SATISFIED WITH THE ANS .PLEASE ANS CLEARLY...

Answer 1

Answer:

note:

n2/n1 = relative value of n2 with respect to n1.

n2/n1 ≠ relative value of n1 with respect to n2.

Ur answer is within 1st four lines of ur question.

Say n1 be air and n2 be water.

therefore n2/n1 = relative refrative index of water with respect to that of air. (n) of air = 1

therefore,

n2/1 = sini/sinr.

In most of the cases, we do not calculate exact values for different objects. However we take the help of relative term.

while taking relative terms we generally use standard objects for our convience whose results are known.

like

relative density = density of xyz with respect to water = density of xyz/ density of water.

Here,

in default conditions we consider second object as air as we know its value which is equal to 1.