We want to make sense of this equation, for a scenario where the object is in on

Question

We want to make sense of this equation, for a scenario where the object is in one medium with index n (e.g. air) and the image is in another medium with index n2 (e.g. water): 81 2 i where ng is the refractive index of the glass, R is the radius of curvature of the air-glass interface, and R2 is the radius of curvature of the glass-water interface Air Water To keep the math simple, let's stay Ri-1cm. R2--1cm. ni = 1, ng-1.5, and n2 = 1.33. (1) If the right medium were air instead of water, would the rays get bent more sharply or less sharply at the right interface?

Explanation / Answer

(1) According to the defination of refraction, a ray passes from a less dense medium to more dense medium, it gets bend at the interface.

So, when light, initially from air, passing to glass medium (less dense to more dense), it get bend 'IN' at the interface. Later the same light passing to water (more dense to less dense), the light bends 'Out' slighlty and finally reach the screen as shown in the figure.

When replaced the water medium with air, then there is no chance of bending 'OUT'

SO we can say that the ray bends more sharply in Air-Glass-Air instead of Air-Glass_Water system.

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