![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | Refractive index was nominated as a good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (September 3, 2014). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated. |
|
||
This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
In an example of water used to demonstrate the formula used to calculate the refractive index n=c/v, it says: water has refractive index 1.33, which indicates speed of light in vacuum is 1.33 times 'more than' that in glass. This is a linguistic error since '1.33 times more than' implies 1+1.33 times in the common case. 戴谨承 ( talk) 02:01, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
The article says, "the refractive index of water is 1.333, meaning that light travels 1.333 times slower in water than in a vacuum. This language may be a bit ambiguous, as there are two interpretations: the speed of light in water may be (c÷1.333) or (c - 1.333×c). Maybe, it could say, "the speed of light in a vacuum is 1.333 times that in water"? Ethan Lestat ( talk) 15:14, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
In the introduction, I noticed the refractive index is explained to be "how fast light travels" through a material. And yet, as the refractive index of a material increases, the speed of light in the corresponding material decreases.
Is it then clearer to explain that refractive index is "how slowly light travels" through a material? Put another way, the more refractive index a material has, the slower light passes through it - so can it be interpreted that refractive index measures slowness?
2601:80:C97F:EFD0:C901:84BE:3D6A:D71D ( talk) 06:54, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
We have defined $$\overbar{n} = n - i\kappa$$ but then in the formulae below we substitute $$\overbar{n} = n + i\kappa$$. Is it true that it only makes sense to define $$\overbar{n} = n - i\kappa$$ when we adopt the other convention, that $$E = exp(i(\omega t - k x))$$?