Ever wondered why a straw in your glass of juice looks bent?

Snell's law

Ever wondered why a straw in your glass of juice looks bent?

Imagine you're holding a straw in a glass of juice, and it appears to bend at the surface where the juice meets the air.

The straw looks bent because light speeds up when it moves from water to air, changing direction. This bending is described by Snell's Law.

Example

If the straw makes a 30-degree angle with the water surface, it appears to bend at a different angle when you look at it from above.

Remember this

Snell's Law explains why light bends at the boundary between two different materials.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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