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What are the Three Laws of Refraction?

GeneralClass 12AllAnswered 27 Mar 2026
Answer

While traditionally there are two laws of refraction, some sources describe three aspects:

  1. The incident ray, refracted ray, and normal lie in the same plane
  2. Snell's Law: n₁ sin θ₁ = n₂ sin θ₂
  3. The refracted ray lies on the opposite side of the normal from the incident ray

These three statements together completely describe the behavior of light during refraction.

General · Class 12