http://www.ck12.org Chapter 12. Waves and Energy Transfer
12.5 Refraction of Mechanical Waves
- Define and describe refraction of mechanical waves.
- State and use the law of refraction.
A straw in a glass of water seen from the side often appears broken, even though it is not. The apparent break is due
to the bending of light rays leaving the straw; as the light passes from the water to the glass and from the glass to the
air, the light rays are bent. Nonetheless, your eye traces the light ray backward as if the light has followed a straight
path from its origin at the straw. Since the light appears to have come from a different place, your eye sees the straw
as being broken.
Refraction of Mechanical Waves
When any wave strikes a boundary between media, some of the energy is reflected and some is transmitted. When
the wave strikes the media interface at an angle, the transmitted wave will move in a slightly different direction than
the incident wave. This phenomenon is known asrefraction.