These Dogs Don't Bark
Classical Mechanics
Level
2
Which of the following phenomena is responsible for causing sundogs? (Sundogs are bright sunlike spot thats occur on either side of the sun.)
Refraction
None of these choices
Reflection
Dispersion
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1 solution
Sun dogs are caused by refraction of light from plate shaped ice crystals in very cold weather, drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals acts as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with minimum deflection of 22 degrees.
As the crystals gently float downwards with their large hexagonal faces almost horizontal, sunlight is refracted horizontally, and we see the sun dogs to the left and right of the sun.