Question

What is the relation between wavelength and refractive index?

Answer 1

Wavelength:

1. The property of a wave that calculates the distance between comparable spots between two succeeding waves is called the wavelength.
2. Wavelength is denoted by $\mathrm{\lambda }\left(\mathrm{lambda}\right)$.

Mathematically, it can be represented as:

$\mathrm{\nu }=\mathrm{\lambda f}...(\mathrm{equation}1)$

Here,

v is the velocity of light.

f is the frequency of light.

Refractive index:

1. The amount a light beam bends when traveling from one medium to another is called the refractive index.
2. The refractive index is denoted by $\mathrm{n}$.

Mathematically, it can be represented as:

$\mathrm{n}=\frac{\mathrm{c}}{\mathrm{v}}...(\mathrm{equation}2)$

Here,

c is the velocity of light in a vacuum.

v is the velocity of light in a medium.

Relation between wavelength and refractive index:

By substituting the equation $1$ in equation $2$, we get

$\Rightarrow \mathrm{n}=\frac{\mathrm{c}}{\mathrm{f\lambda }}$

Therefore, the refractive index is stated to be inversely proportional to the wavelength.