Category:Snell-Descartes Law

This category contains pages concerning Snell-Descartes Law:

Consider a ray of light crossing the threshold between two media.

Let its speed:

in medium $1$ be $v_1$

in medium $2$ be $v_2$.

Let it meet the threshold at:

an angle $\alpha_1$ from the vertical in medium 1

an angle $\alpha_2$ from the vertical in medium 2.

Then the Snell-Descartes law states that:

$\dfrac {\sin \alpha_1} {v_1} = \dfrac {\sin \alpha_2} {v_2}$

Source of Name

This entry was named for Willebrord van Royen Snell and René Descartes.