SNELL’S LAW

Notice how when a light passes through a medium, it usually bends or refracts?
Refraction, as we all know, is the bending of light as it passes across a boundary that
separates two media. It is caused by the change in speed of the light wave when the
medium that the light passes through changes. The Snell’s law provides us with a
solution on how we can predict or compute for the amount of refraction or bending of
light wave. This law was discovered in 1621 by Willobrord Snell.

The Snell’s law involves the relationship between the angles of incidence,
refraction, and indices of refraction. This project aims to look for the derivation of Snell’s
law and we’ll be utilizing the Principle of Least Time to do so. The Principle of Least
time, also regarded as Fermat’s principle, states that the path that the light takes that
travels between two points needs either a minimum or maximum time. Creating an
identical path length due to the divergence of the beams of light that is converged
through a lens resulting to the identical image of the path. Provided below is the formula
for Snell’s Law.

n1 sin θ1=n 2 sin θ2

n1= incident index θ1= angle of incidence

n2= refracted index θ2 = angle of refraction

The Snell’s law states the n1/n2=sinθ2 /sinθ1. Due to the fact that the ratio between
the incident index and refracted index is constant at any wavelength of light, the ratio
between the two sines is constant to any angles.
The Derivation for Snell’s Law

In the figure, we can see the two mediums in contact with each other. A ray that
passes through the top medium and when the ray passes through the second medium,
the light ray refracts, in this, the ray’s speed is starting to decrease.

Figure 1
 In determining the best path of the two rays at fixed value which is labeled as the
value x has the capability to vary. Note that x is the ray travels in the upper medium.

Figure 2

Generalizing the equation, we get the two shaded diagrams shown below.

Figure 3
In deriving the Snell’s Law, the we will utilize the Pythagorean Theorem as the first
equation.

d1=√ x 2+ h2

d2=√(a−x )2+ y 2

Considering that light waves travel at constant speed, the given second equation will be.

d1=v1t1 d2= v2t2

d1 d2
t1= v t2= v
1 2

t=
1
√ x 2 +h2
t2=
√ 2
(a−x) + y
2

v1 v2

The total time that is required to travel is the third equation written as

Total time=
√ x 2 +h2 + √(a− x)2 + y 2
v1 v2

To minimize and maximize the quantity, the derivative is taken and set it equal to zero.
This is our fourth equation.

−1
1 2 2 2 −1
( x +h ) 2 2
dt 2 1 ((a−x)¿¿ 2+ y )
=( 2 x ) −2(a−x ) ¿
dx v1 2 v2

−1
1 2 2 2 −1
(x +h ) 2 2
2 1 ((a−x )¿¿ 2+ y )
(2 x ) −2 ( a−x ) =0 ¿
v1 2 v2
Simplifying the equation, we get the fifth equation as:

−1 −1

( x 2 +h2 ) 2 ( ( a−x )2 + y 2 ) 2
x −( a−x ) =0
v1 v2

x 1 ( a−x )
−
1
v1 1
2
( x +h ) 2 2
( ( a−x ) 2
+y 2 2
)

Notice from the shaded triangles in Figure 3, we get:

x x x
sin θ1= = =
d 1 √ x 2 +h2 2
1
2 2
(x +h )

a−x (a−x) (a−x)

sin θ2= = =
d2 √(a− x)2 + y 2 ((a−x ) + y )
2
1
2 2

Now, we get:

1 1
sin θ1 −sinθ 2 =0
v1 v2

For the definition of the Index of Refraction we have:

c 1 n
v= → =
n v c

n
Finally, substituting to the equation we get the Snell’s Law Equation that we are all
c
familiar with.

1 1
sin θ1 −sinθ 2 =0
v1 v2
 n1 n2
sin θ1 −sinθ 2 =0
c c

Therefore, we get:

n1 sin θ1=n 2 sin θ2

Conclusion

The Snell’s law applies to various materials regardless of its phase. It is a very
vital law used in Optical mineralogy to prove our queries with regards to various
refraction incidents that we usually encounter in our daily lives. For example, when we
submerge an erected pencil to water, the pencil tends to look smaller from above than it
actually is, same goes when we stand on clear water, our legs seem to be shorter than
they actually are. Again, the Snell’s law associates the angle of incidence and refraction
at the intervention of two side-by-side mediums. It is a very important law in Optical
Mineralogy especially when with dealing with crystals and development of optical
devices.
References
Refraction and the Ray Model of Light - Lesson 2 - The Mathematics of Refraction. (n.d.). Retrieved from
The Physics Classroom: [Link]

Resource Lesson A Derivation of Snell's Law. (n.d.). Retrieved from Online Physics Lab:
[Link]
doctype=3&filename=GeometricOptics_LeastTime.xml&fbclid=IwAR3r2DvnYLXc0A04Oae8_4cG
AJRT4ijW5ijdY5pz6Zzdn4NdiMSKXEVztq0

Snell's Law. (2020, October 21). Retrieved from LibreTexts:

[Link]
cience)/Optical_Properties/Snell's_Law

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Fermat's principle. Retrieved from Britannica:
[Link]

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Snell's Law. Retrieved from Britannica:
[Link]