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Sunlight strikes the surface of a lake at an angle of incidence of \(30.0^{\circ} .\) At what angle with respect to the normal would a fish see the Sun?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: The fish sees the Sun at an angle of approximately 22.1° with respect to the normal.

Step by step solution

01

Understand Snell's Law

Snell's Law states that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence (\(\theta_{1}\)) to the sine of the angle of refraction (\(\theta_{2}\)) is equal to the ratio of the refractive indices of the two materials: $$ \frac{\sin{\theta_{1}}}{\sin{\theta_{2}}} = \frac{n_{2}}{n_{1}} $$ In this case, \(n_{1}\) is the refractive index of air (approximated to 1.00), \(n_{2}\) is the refractive index of water (approximately 1.33), and \(\theta_{1}\) is the angle of incidence given in the problem.
02

Calculate the angle of refraction

We can rearrange Snell's Law to solve for the angle of refraction \(\theta_{2}\): $$ \theta_{2} = \arcsin \left( \frac{n_{1}\sin{\theta_{1}}}{n_{2}} \right) $$ Now, we can substitute the known values into this formula to calculate the angle of refraction: $$ \theta_{2} = \arcsin \left( \frac{1.00\sin{30.0^{\circ}}}{1.33} \right) $$
03

Evaluate the expression

Using a calculator, we find that: $$ \theta_{2} \approx \arcsin \left( \frac{0.5}{1.33} \right) \approx 22.1^{\circ} $$
04

Find the angle with respect to the normal

The angle of refraction we just calculated is the angle between the sunlight and the normal. Since the fish sees the Sun at this angle of refraction, the angle with respect to the normal is: $$ \theta_{\text{fish}} = \theta_{2} \approx 22.1^{\circ} $$ So, the fish sees the Sun at an angle of approximately \(22.1^{\circ}\) with respect to the normal.

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