Question

Does the Light travel in a straight line or does it bend ?

Answer 1

1. The light travels in a straight line in the given medium.
2. When the light rays travel from one medium to another, there is a bending of light.
3. Fermat's principle states that the light travels between the two points along the path that requires the least time, as compared to the other nearby paths.
4. Glass is a perfect everyday example of light refraction. Looking through a glass jar will make an object look smaller and slightly lifted. If a slab of glass is placed over a document or piece of paper, then the words will look closer to the surface because of the different angle the light is bending.

Therefore, the light can travel in a straight line in the same medium and can bend when passing through the different mediums of different refractive indexes.