Question

A pulse of light takes 2.63 to travel 0.500m in a certain material. What is the material index?

Answer 1

To determine the material index, we can use the formula for the speed of light in a medium:

$v=\frac{c}{n}$

where:

• $v$ is the speed of light in the material,
• $c$ is the speed of light in a vacuum, and
• $n$ is the refractive index of the material.

In this case, we have the distance traveled ($d$) and the time it takes ($t$) for the pulse of light to travel through the material. We can calculate the speed of light in the material using the formula $v=\frac{d}{t}$.

Given that the pulse of light takes 2.63 ns (nanoseconds) to travel 0.500 m, we can calculate the speed of light in the material:

$v=\frac{0.500\text{m}}{2.63\times 10^{-9}\text{s}}$

Now, we can equate the speed of light in the material to $\frac{c}{n}$ and solve for the refractive index ($n$):

0.500 m2.63×10−9 s=cnfrac{0.500 , ext{m}}{2.63 imes 10^{ -9} , ext{s}} = frac{c}{n}2.63<span class="mb