Bonjour guys,
today I want to tell you about a discovery I came across while I was in Versailles. I went to see a particular painting, entitled “Chat Angora Blanc” by Jean-Jacques Bachelier, which portrays Madame Brillant. According to my family tree, she could be an illustrious ancestor of mine. Here you can see the painting I am referring to and, in fact, it seems to exist a great similarity between us.
As I was telling you, I had gone to visit the places where my ancestor lived and I was struck by the light of the chandeliers in the hall of mirrors: the light was breaking up into many rays of different colors and while this thought was spinning in my head, I went out to admire the garden.
Immersed in my thoughts, I almost didn’t end up immersing myself in the Latona fountain, where I caught a glimpse of a rainbow admist the water droplets from the splashes of the fountain. Back home, I decided to resume my studies on optics, a subject I’m very passionate about, and to write this article, the first of a long and interesting series dedicated to the light and its mysteries.
Here we see the passage of the light beam from material 1 to material 2.
Since the materials have different optical properties, a variation in the angle of the light beam is obtained.
Where:
- n1 is the refractive coefficient of the medium 1
- n2 is the refractive coefficient of the medium 2
- v1=c/n1, speed of light in the medium 1
- v2=c/n2, speed of light in the medium 2
- c speed of light in vacuum
Continue reading “The light’s mysteries: refraction”