Question

The speed of light in turpentine oil is $2.04\times {10}^{5}km/s$. Calculate the refractive index of turpentine oil.

Answer 1

Step 1: Given data
The speed of light in turpentine oil $\left(v\right)=2.04\times {10}^{5}km/s=2.04\times {10}^{8}m/s(\sin ce1km=1000m)$
Since we know the speed of light in a vacuum $\left(c\right)=3\times {10}^{8}m/s$
Step 2: Using the formula for the refractive index-
$Refractiveindex\left(n\right)=\frac{Speedoflightinvacuum\left(c\right)}{Speedoflightinthemedium\left(v\right)}$
Step 3: Calculating the refractive index:
$$\begin{gathered} n=\frac{3\times {10}^{8}m/s}{2.04\times {10}^{8}m/s} \\ n=1.47 \end{gathered}$$
Hence the refractive index of turpentine oil is $1.47$