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Why is light slower in glass? - Sixty Symbols
Sixty Symbols
Professor Mike Merrifield of Nottingham explains in a mostly uncut conversation why light travels slower in glass. He treats light as a wave and describes how the material's electrons produce secondary waves that combine to slow it.
HN cites it whenever the popular absorb-and-re-emit explanation comes up, as a source for the wave-interference account.
8 Hacker News mentions · 2018–2021