6A42.45 - Broken Stick

Broken stick

 

PIRA Classification: 6A42.45

Description: A stick is placed in a tank of water. When viewed from an angle, the stick appears to be broken. To understand this consider propagation of light in the horizontal plane. Light that travels only in the air goes along a straight line while the light coming from water changes its direction due to Snell's law. So the light from water seems to come from a different spot.

Special Instructions: None

Condition: Ok

Setup time: 2 minutes

Safety Issues: None