Mod 7 > newton refraction (1 Viewer)

[NexusRich]

The textbook says that Newton's corpuscular model proposes that light's normal component of increases in a denser medium, and the tangential component remains same. But Im not sure what these two components are. Please point out.

 

[okayokay123]

You just break up the light vector into its horizontal and vertical components. The normal is just the component that is perpendicular to the surface, so in that diagram it would be the vertical line and the tangential component is horizontal, parallel to the surface

since newton thought that since light was made of particles (with mass) it would be attracted to the water particles bc of gravitational attraction. so as the light approaches the water it will start to accelerate towards the normal, or downwards. since theres no other net forces acting on the light it doesnt affect the tangential component