When a light wave enters a medium with a different refractive index,

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

When a light wave moves from one medium to another with a different refractive index, several properties can change, but not all change simultaneously.

Option 1: 'its frequency and wavelength change.' This is incorrect because the frequency of light remains constant when crossing a boundary between media. Only the wavelength changes due to the change in speed.

Option 2: 'its speed and frequency change.' This is wrong because the frequency stays the same across the boundary; only the speed changes and, correspondingly, the wavelength adjusts to conserve frequency.

Option 3: 'its speed and wavelength change.' This is correct. The speed of light decreases or increases depending on the second medium, and the wavelength correspondingly shortens or lengthens so that the frequency remains unchanged.

Option 4: 'its speed, frequency, and wavelength change.' This is incorrect for the same reason as Option 2: frequency does not change across the boundary, so listing it as changing is false.

In summary, the boundary affects speed and wavelength but not frequency, due to the requirement that the wave’s frequency remains continuous across the interface and the relationship v = fλ ties speed to wavelength for a given frequency.

When a light wave enters a medium with a different refractive index,单项选择题

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