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Measurements

Incident angle:45.0°
Critical angle:41.8°
Reflectance:0.05
Transmittance:0.95
Reflected
Transmitted

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Boundary Fiber Optic

Total Internal Reflection

θ_c = arcsin(n₂ / n₁)

When light travels from a denser medium (higher n) to a less dense one, and the angle exceeds the critical angle, 100% of light is reflected.

Even beyond the boundary, an evanescent wave penetrates a fraction of a wavelength, decaying exponentially.

This principle enables fiber optic communication - light bounces inside the glass core.