A light ray is incident on a plane glass surface at an angle of incidence of 45 degrees. If the refractive index of glass is 1.5, what is the angle of refraction?
Correct: C
The angle of refraction can be calculated using Snell's law, n1 sin(θ1) = n2 sin(θ2), where n1 is the refractive index of air, θ1 is the angle of incidence, n2 is the refractive index of glass, and θ2 is the angle of refraction. Given n1 = 1, θ1 = 45 degrees, and n2 = 1.5, we can rearrange the formula to find θ2 = arcsin((n1/n2) * sin(θ1)) = arcsin((1/1.5) * sin(45)) = arcsin(0.5/1.5 * 0.7071) = arcsin(0.4714) ≈ 28.12 degrees, which rounds closest to 30 degrees among the given options.