I find money in the jar

A person looking into an empty container is able to see the far edge of the container’s bottom. The height of the container is h h , and its width is d d . When the container is completely filled with a fluid of index of refraction n n and viewed from the same angle, the person can see the center of a coin at the middle of the container’s bottom.

Question is that if the the container has a width of 8 cm 8 \,\text{cm} and is filled with water, then find the height of the container in cm \text{cm} to 2 decimal places.

Details and assumptions

  • The refractive index, n n for water is 4 3 \dfrac{4}{3} .
  • Use calculator if required.


The answer is 4.73.

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1 solution

To solve the problem, we use Snell's law which states:

s i n θ 1 s i n θ 2 = n 2 n 1 \frac{sin\theta_{1}}{sin\theta_{2}}=\frac{n_{2}}{n_{1}}

where, θ 1 \theta_{1} and θ 2 \theta_{2} are angle of incident and refraction (with normal), and n 1 n_{1} and n 2 n_{2} , the refractive indices of the two media respectively.

Now, s i n θ 1 = 8 h 2 + 8 2 sin\theta_{1}= \frac {8}{\sqrt{h^{2}+8^{2}}} , s i n θ 2 = 4 h 2 + 4 2 sin\theta_{2}= \frac {4}{\sqrt{h^{2}+4^{2}}} , n 1 = n a i r = 1 n_{1}=n_{air}=1 , and n 2 = n = 1.333 n_{2}=n=1.333 .

Therefore, s i n θ 1 s i n θ 2 = n 2 n 1 \frac{sin\theta_{1}}{sin\theta_{2}}=\frac{n_{2}}{n_{1}}

8 h 2 + 8 2 × h 2 + 4 2 4 = 1.333 1 2 h 2 + 16 h 2 + 64 = 1.333 \Rightarrow\frac{8}{\sqrt{h^{2}+8^{2}}}\times\frac{\sqrt{h^{2}+4^{2}}}{4}=\frac{1.333}{1}\Rightarrow\frac{2\sqrt{h^{2}+16}}{\sqrt{h^{2}+64}}=1.333 4 ( h 2 + 16 ) = 1.33 3 2 ( h 2 + 64 ) 2.22 h 2 = 49.720896 \Rightarrow 4(h^{2}+16) = 1.333^{2}(h^{2}+64)\Rightarrow 2.22h^{2} = 49.720896 h 2 = 22.36545814 h = 4.729213268 4.73 c m \Rightarrow h^{2} =22.36545814\Rightarrow h =4.729213268\approx \boxed{4.73} cm

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