Question

Question 3
Find out, from the table, the medium having highest optical density. Also, find the medium with lowest optical density.

$\begin{array}{cccc}Materialmedium& Refractiveindex& Materialmedium& Refractiveindex\\ Air& 1.0003& CanadaBalsam& 1.53\\ Ice& 1.31& -& -\\ Water& 1.33& Rocksalt& 1.54\\ Alcohol& 1.36& -& -\\ Kerosene& 1.44& Carbondisulphide& 1.63\\ Fusedquartz& 1.46& Denseflintglass& 1.65\\ Turpentineoil& 1.47& Ruby& 1.71\\ Benzene& 1.50& Sapphire& 1.77\\ Crownglass& 1.52& Diamond& 2.42\end{array}$

Answer 1

The medium having highest optical density is Diamond (Refractive Index 2.42) and the medium having lowest optical density is Air (Refractive Index 1.0003). The optical density of a medium is directly related to the refractive index of that medium. A medium which has the highest refractive index will have the highest optical density and vice-versa. It can be observed from the table that diamond and air have the highest and lowest refractive index respectively. Therefore, diamond has the highest optical density and air has the lowest optical density.