When we consider the behavior of light as it moves from one medium to another, the direction in which the light bends is governed by Snell's law, which relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction and the indices of refraction of the two media.
Snell's law is given by the equation:
n1 * sin(θ1) = n2 * sin(θ2)
where:
n1 is the index of refraction of the first medium (material A in this case),
n2 is the index of refraction of the second medium (material B),
θ1 is the angle of incidence (the angle between the incident ray and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence),
θ2 is the angle of refraction (the angle between the refracted ray and the normal).
When a light ray bends away from the normal as it enters a second medium (from material A into material B), it means that the angle of refraction θ2 is greater than the angle of incidence θ1. According to Snell's law, for θ2 to be greater than θ1 when sin(θ1) and sin(θ2) are compared, n2 must be smaller than n1—because the value of sin() increases as the angle increases up to 90 degrees, and for the equality to be maintained while the angle increases, the index of refraction on the other side must decrease.
Therefore, if the light bends away from the normal, it is moving into a medium with a lower index of refraction. This means that material B must have a smaller index of refraction than material A.
So, the correct statement is:
O material A has a smaller index of refraction
O material B has a smaller index of refraction - this is the correct statement.
O both materials have the same index of refraction
The right answer is: material B has a smaller index of refraction.
