Angle of refraction - Light, Colour, Vision

The angle of refraction measures the angle to which light bends as it crosses the boundary between different transparent media.

The angle of refraction is measured between a ray of light that has undergone refraction and an imaginary line called the normal.
The equation used to calculate the angle of refraction is sometimes referred to as the law of refraction or Snell’s law.
The law of refraction deals with the relationship between the angles of incidence and the angle of refraction when light crosses the boundary between two different transparent media, such as air and water.
In the field of optics, the law of refraction is used when drawing ray diagrams to compute the angles of incidence or refraction, and in experimental optics to find the refractive index of a medium.

If one line is normal to another, then it is at right angles.
In geometry, a normal (or the normal) refers to a line drawn perpendicular to and intersecting another line, plane or surface.
In the field of optics, the normal is a line drawn on a ray diagram perpendicular to (at 90⁰ to), the boundary between two media.
If the boundary between two media is curved then the normal is drawn at a tangent to the boundary.

Each of the diagrams below can be viewed on its own page with a full explanation.

$The Law of Refraction Explained$

$Refraction Towards the Normal$

$Refraction Away from the Normal$

$Refraction of a Wave of Light$

The angle of refraction measures the angle to which light bends as it passes across the boundary between different media.

The angle of refraction is measured between a ray of light and an imaginary line called the normal.
In optics, the normal is a line drawn on a ray diagram perpendicular to, so at a right angle to (90⁰), to the boundary between two media.
If the boundary between the media is curved then the normal is drawn perpendicular to the boundary.
Snell’s law is a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction when referring to light passing across the boundary between two different transparent media, such as water, glass, or air.
In optics, the law is used in ray diagrams to compute the angles of incidence or refraction, and in experimental optics to find the refractive index of a medium.