What causes the refraction of a wave?

Answer 1

The speed of light changes in the medium it is traversing - faster in air than water, faster in distilled water than glass.

When a beam of light (consisting of many photons) strikes a semi-transparent or fully transparent surface, all the photons on the front of the wave hit at the same time (averaged). But if the beam is angled at the surface, the photons at the nearest edge (to the surface) slow down before the photons at the far edge (to the surface) and causes bending of the beam or wave. It is this difference in velocity that causes refraction. This is the basis for optical lenses (and human eyes), which refocus parallel light beams into a new image.

Refraction of light into its constituent wavelengths is caused by light passing through a medium, typically a prism. It goes in one side of it, and the light breaks up into the different colors of the visible light spectrum. This creates the rainbow effect.

Refraction is also the reason why our sky appears blue. Light energy is absorbed by gas particles in the upper atmosphere, and the blue wavelengths are absorbed the most, then re-radiated in what is called Rayleigh scattering. If you look near the horizon, it normally appears less blue. Around sunrise and sunset, the light directly from the Sun is scattered away from your line of sight, so you see more of the yellow and red light.

Answer 2

The refraction of a wave occurs when it changes speed as it moves from one medium to another, resulting in a change in its direction. This change in speed is due to the wavefronts entering the new medium at an angle, causing one side of the wavefront to speed up or slow down before the other side, leading to a change in direction.

Answer 3

refraction of light occur due to the very small molecules of air . Light passes from the side of the molecule and this bends the light

Answer 4

areas of low density due to oscillations.