Answer by user93146 for Why does light refract?
A good motivational book to start to understand this is Feynman's "QED"https://www.amazon.com/QED-Strange-Princeton-Science-Library/dp/0691164096/There are models of light that have been used. Consider...
View ArticleAnswer by JKL for Why does light refract?
Fermat's "Least Action Principle"To understand the reason why this happens, you need to think in terms of Fermat's least action principle. The reason why light refracts is because it "optimises" its...
View ArticleAnswer by John Rennie for Why does light refract?
A good question, and one that confused me for a long time.In the absense of matter the light wave is massless. However in the presence of polarisable matter the light interacts with the matter and...
View ArticleWhy does light refract?
I had read that light does slow down in glass because photons interact with atoms in glass. They are absorbed and re-emitted and during this phenomenon it's speed decreases. See also this and this...
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