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29 Jan 2012 13:29:42 IST

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Refraction and reflection

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Sagar Saxena

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15 May 2012 19:16:47 IST

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Objects can be seen by the light they emit, or, more often, by the light they reflect. Reflected light obeys the law of reflection, that the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.
Most objects exhibit diffuse reflection, with light being reflected in all directions. All objects obey the law of reflection on a microscopic level, but if the irregularities on the surface of an object are larger than the wavelength of light, which is usually the case, the light reflects off in all directions.

When we talk about the speed of light, we're usually talking about the speed of light in a vacuum, which is 3.00 x 10⁸ m/s. When light travels through something else, such as glass, diamond, or plastic, it travels at a different speed. The speed of light in a given material is related to a quantity called the index of refraction, n, which is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in the medium:

index of refraction : n = c / v

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