A ray of light traveling from air is incident on a glass slab. How is the refractive index of glass calculated in terms of the speed of light in air and glass?

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Solution

The refractive index of medium 1 with respect to medium 2 is given by the ratio of the speed of light in medium 2 to the speed of light in medium 1.
Hence the refractive index of glass with respect to air is given by the ratio of the speed of light in air to the speed of light in glass.
Mathematically, $_{a} μ_{g} = \frac{c}{v_{g}}$ , where $c$ is the speed of light in air, $v_{g}$ is the speed of light in the glass, and $_{a} μ_{g}$ is the refractive index of the glass with respect to air.

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