Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
When a wave is propagating from a rarer to a denser medium, which characteristic of the wave does not change and why?
Solution
Frequency of a wave does not change when the wave is propagating from a rarer to a denser medium because frequency (ν) is given by the relation
`"v" = "v"/lambda`
As the medium changes velocity (v) and wavelength (λ) change such that ratio remains constant.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
Use Huygens' principle to show the propagation of a plane wavefront from a denser medium to a rarer medium. Hence find the ratio of the speeds of wavefronts in the two media.
When light travels from an optically denser medium to a rarer medium, why does the critical angle of incidence depend on the colour of light?
A point-object is placed on the principal axis of convex spherical surface of radius of curvature R, which separates the two media of refractive indices n1 and n2 (n2>n1). Draw the ray diagram and deduce the relation between the distance of the object (u), distance of the image (v) and the radius of curvature (R for refraction to take place at the convex spherical surface from rarer to denser medium.
