Teaching Refractive index with a Virtual Experimental Activity

Abstract

Abstract The refractive index of a transparent medium is a physical property taught in the schools at the secondary level. It depends on the medium characteristics that can be easily shown with a simple experimental setup. This property also depends on the wavelength of the light and on the temperature of the medium. These dependencies are very smooth and schools usually do not have accurate experimental setups to allow students exploring the dependency in order to better understand this phenomenon. This work presents a simulation from the class Virtual Experimental Activity, to help teachers to provide experimental activities in the classroom to engage concepts that otherwise should only be approached theoretically.