What is the actual reason for change in direction of light during refraction
Answers
Answer:
The actual reason for change in direction of light during refraction is speed
Explanation:
First we need to understand the dual nature of light.
According to Maxwell, light while travelling is in the form of fluctuating electromagnetic radiations , i.e it has wave form during propagation.
And while interaction with a charged particle it portrays particle nature.
On an atomic level, the incident light wave polarizes the charge distribution of the atoms. This charge distribution is not static as the electric field vectors of the wave are periodically varying. This leads to reradiation and the superposition of all the reradiated wave fronts leads to the refracted ray.
A simpler way to understand this :
Light travels in wave form and when it goes through a change in density of the media in which it is propagating, there is some disturbance and overlapping in the wave forms which leads to change in direction of light.
To understand this in detail u need some knowledge of quantum mechanics and other extra things which is not required at all in school level