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Question
- what happens to light when it travels from one material to another? it changes direction. it changes speed and direction. it changes color. it gets absorbed.
When light travels from one material (medium) to another, due to the change in the refractive index of the two media, its speed changes. According to Snell's law ($n_1\sin\theta_1 = n_2\sin\theta_2$, where $n$ is the refractive index and $\theta$ is the angle of incidence/refraction), the direction (angle) of the light ray also changes (except when it is incident perpendicularly, $n_1\sin90^{\circ}=n_2\sin\theta_2\Rightarrow\theta_2 = \arcsin(\frac{n_1}{n_2})$, if $n_1 = n_2$, $\theta_2=90^{\circ}$, but generally $n_1
eq n_2$). The color of light (which is related to its frequency) remains the same as it depends on the source of light, not the medium. Absorption is a property that depends on the nature of the medium (like opaque materials absorb light), but the question is about the general behavior when moving from one medium to another, not about absorption in a particular medium.
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It changes speed and direction.