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Asked by: Lyudmil Birck
medical health eye and vision conditionsWhat is the relation between optical density and refractive index?
The physical density of a material refers to the mass/volume ratio. Optical density determines how much a light wave is slowed down as it passes through a medium. The more optically dense a material is, the slower that a wave will move through the material. The refractive index is a measurement of optical density.
Subsequently, one may also ask, how does refractive index relate to density?
The index of refraction value of a material is a number that indicates the number of times slower that a light wave would be in that material than it is in a vacuum. So as the index of refraction value increases, the optical density increases, and the speed of light in that material decreases.
Correspondingly, is refractive index directly proportional to density?
In general, if the density of the medium increases than refractive index of that medium also increases. However, of course there are some exceptions like water. Velocity of the light in a medium is inversely proportional to the refractive index of that medium.
A medium which has the highest refractive index will have the highest optical density and vice-versa. It can be observed from table 10.3 that diamond and air respectively have the highest and lowest refractive index. Therefore, diamond has the highest optical density and air has the lowest optical density.