What occurs when a wave passes from one medium to another?

Answer 1

When a wave travels from one material to another, and the indices of refraction are different, the speed of the wave and the wave's wavelength can change. The frequency of the wave will remain constant.

Answer 2

The velocity may change and thus the angle may change.

But what is normally missed, so causing confusion, is the change to wavelength due to the slower propagation speed. (measured as refractive index 'n' of the medium). The more dense the medium the more particles to negotiate so the slower the speed. (speed = c/n). The numerical derivative 'frequency' does not then change.

(with media co-motion frequency confuses most, because it is a time based derivative so dependent of observer state of motion). Consider all speed as local propagation speed (as SR postulate 2 - even in a so-called vacuum) and the confusion and paradox of most current interpretation will lift.

Answer 3

When a wave is propagating and the characteristics of the medium change at a flat interface, there are a few things that happen.

1. Reflection of part of the incident occurs unless the characteristics of the mediums are such that the wave velocity is the same in to two mediums.

2. Transmission through the interface normally occurs, so there is an incident wave, a reflected wave and a transmitted wave. All of these waves have the same frequency.

3. The wave velocity for an elastic wave is determined by the radio of the elastic property of the medium and the density of the medium, specifically, the square root of this ratio is the velocity. If the mediums have the same elastic properties, the higher density medium will have slower waves. However, greater elasticity increase the speed of the wave and the ratio of these two quantities will determine which medium has the greater velocity.

4. Since the speed of the wave is the frequency times the wavelength and the frequency ion the two mediums is the same, the wavelength is proportional to the speed of the wave.

5. For optical waves (e.g. light) the rulkes are different. The speed of the wave is inversely proportional to the index of refraction of the medium, n=c/v.

6. One sometimes hears materials with a large index of refraction refered to as optically dense. In that sense, in denser materials the light moves slower and has a shorter wavelength.

Answer 4

The ray of light will bend away from the normal.

Answer 5

The local speed of sound, c = sqrt(y*R*T) = sqrt(y*p/rho). This implies that c will increase in a lower density medium.

Answer 6

it will bend towards a normal

Answer 7

It becomes bigger and stronger

Answer 8

c

Answer 9

Refraction