I. Science Fair Question What is the speed of light in gelatin? II. Background Research Did you ever wonder how the speed of light is measured? This paper will discuss how the speed of light is measured. The terms that will discussed in this paper are the law of refraction, trajectory, Snell’s Law, and the index of refraction. Snell’s Law gives the relationship between angles of incidence and refraction for a wave impinging on an interface between two media with different indices of refraction (Snell’s Law). Snell’s Law relates the indices of refraction of the two media to the directions of propagation in terms of the angles to the normal (Refraction of Light). In the absence of gravity, a projectile’s motion
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Projectiles travel with a parabolic trajectory due to the fact that the downward force of gravity accelerates them downward from their otherwise straight-line, gravity-free trajectory (Characteristics of a Projectile’s Trajectory). The index of refraction is defined as the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in the medium. Indices of refraction must be greater than or equal to one, so values less than one do not represent a physically possible system. If the incident medium has the larger index of refraction, then the angle with the normal is increased by refraction (Refraction of Light).
The first successful measurement of the speed of light was made by Olaus Roemer in 1676. He obtained a value of the speed of light equivalent to 214,000 km/s, which was very …show more content…
Refraction effects are based on the fact that light travels more slowly in a denser medium (Optics).
A laser pointer is a low cost laser that is easy to carry around and can be carried in the hand. It is designed to be able to use during presentations to point out areas of the slide. Technically, the word laser is an acronym that stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," but the word is so frequently used now that it is not capitalized anymore. The radiation is the light that is let out from the laser; this light can be able to be seen or not able to be seen to the human eye. Technically, only some lasers use light amplification, but the word laser is still used for a device that makes monochromatic, coherent radiation. All lasers consist of a lasing medium, a source of energy, and a resonator. The lasing medium is a material that can be energized by a source of energy to a higher energy state. After being energized, the lasing medium can let go of that energy as monochromatic radiation. The resonator is an area that lets the released energy build up before being let out. A basic resonator is a pair of
Projectiles travel with a parabolic trajectory due to the fact that the downward force of gravity accelerates them downward from their otherwise straight-line, gravity-free trajectory (Characteristics of a Projectile’s Trajectory). The index of refraction is defined as the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in the medium. Indices of refraction must be greater than or equal to one, so values less than one do not represent a physically possible system. If the incident medium has the larger index of refraction, then the angle with the normal is increased by refraction (Refraction of Light).
The first successful measurement of the speed of light was made by Olaus Roemer in 1676. He obtained a value of the speed of light equivalent to 214,000 km/s, which was very …show more content…
Refraction effects are based on the fact that light travels more slowly in a denser medium (Optics).
A laser pointer is a low cost laser that is easy to carry around and can be carried in the hand. It is designed to be able to use during presentations to point out areas of the slide. Technically, the word laser is an acronym that stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," but the word is so frequently used now that it is not capitalized anymore. The radiation is the light that is let out from the laser; this light can be able to be seen or not able to be seen to the human eye. Technically, only some lasers use light amplification, but the word laser is still used for a device that makes monochromatic, coherent radiation. All lasers consist of a lasing medium, a source of energy, and a resonator. The lasing medium is a material that can be energized by a source of energy to a higher energy state. After being energized, the lasing medium can let go of that energy as monochromatic radiation. The resonator is an area that lets the released energy build up before being let out. A basic resonator is a pair of