murdumisnäitajast

Murdumisnäitaja, often translated as refractive index, is a dimensionless number that describes how light propagates through a medium. It is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in that medium. Mathematically, it is represented by the letter 'n', where n = c/v, with 'c' being the speed of light in a vacuum and 'v' being the speed of light in the medium.

A higher refractive index indicates that light travels slower in the medium, causing it to bend or refract more when it passes from one medium to another with a different refractive index. This bending of light is responsible for phenomena such as the apparent bending of a straw in a glass of water or the functioning of lenses in eyeglasses and telescopes.

The refractive index is a fundamental property of a material and can vary with the wavelength of light. This phenomenon, known as dispersion, is why prisms can split white light into its constituent colors. Different materials have different refractive indices, which are used to identify substances and are crucial in fields like optics, materials science, and geology. For instance, the refractive index of a gemstone can help determine its authenticity. Gases typically have refractive indices very close to 1, while denser materials like diamond have significantly higher values.