Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fermat09 PDF
Fermat09 PDF
Fermat’s principle states that “light travels between two points along the path
that requires the least time, as compared to other nearby paths.” From Fermat’s
principle, one can derive (a) the law of reflection [the angle of incidence is equal
to the angle of reflection] and (b) the law of refraction [Snell’s law]. This is
problem 32-81 on page 864 of Giancoli. The derivations are given below.
( l − x) + h22
2
x 2 + h12
=t +
c c
To minimize the time we set the derivative of the time with respect to x equal to
zero. We also use the definition of the sine as opposite side over hypotenuse to
relate the lengths to the angles of incidence and reflection.
dt x −(l − x)
0= = + →
dx c x 2 + h12 c ( l − x )2 + h 2
2
x
=
(l − x) → sin θ= sin θ 2 → θ= θ2
1 1
x +h ( l − x ) + h22
2 2 2
1
(b) Now we consider a light ray traveling from point A
to point B in media with different indices of refraction,
h1 θ1
as shown in the figure. The time to travel between the l -x n1
two points is the distance in each medium divided by n2
the speed of light in that medium. h2
θ2
( l − x) + h22
2
x 2 + h12 l
=t +
c n1 c n2
To minimize the time we set the derivative of the time with respect to x equal to
zero. We also use the definition of the sine as opposite side over hypotenuse to
relate the lengths to the angles of incidence and reflection.
dt nx −n2 ( l − x ) n1 x n (l − x)
0 == 1 + → =2 → n1 sin θ1 =
n2 sin θ 2
dx c x 2 + h12 c ( l − x )2 + h 2 x 2
+ h1
2
( l − x ) + h2
2 2
2
© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights reserved. This material is
protected under all copyright laws as the currently exist. No portion of this material may be
reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.