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Old 19-05-2011, 06:45 PM
Keshdogga (Casey)
Casey Roff

Keshdogga is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Posts: 91
Quote:
Originally Posted by adman View Post
With sound it is almost self explanatory - with light - less so.
This is what i was streesing over I just can't wrap my head around this concept of light 'slowing down' so does this then mean light can have a speed of anywhere between 0m/s and c? or rather 0 < light's velocity ≤ c ? More of a clarification issue at the moment I think.

I was reading up on it more and found the wiki page on snell's law carl recomended (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law). Under the derivations and formule heading it says light takes the path of least time. This makes a bit more sense lol but I still can't explain why light takes the path of least time in the first place. Again It's hard to comprehend "why?" in terms of everyday examples because light is well... unique. Can anyone explain this to me?

Oh and the reason i've been so persistant with this question is just because i have a uni assignment on refractive indices and i hit a gap so to speak

Much appreciated,
Casey
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