National League for Nursing (NLN) Science Practice Exam

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A laser beam of light is pointed through the air and then into a diamond. The beam of light then bends. This results from the process called:

reflection.
difraction.
dispersion.
refraction.

The correct answer is: refraction.

The bending of the laser beam as it moves from air into the diamond is a result of refraction. Refraction occurs when light travels through different media, causing a change in its speed and direction. In this instance, light travels faster in air than in diamond due to the difference in optical density between the two materials. When the light beam enters the diamond, which has a higher refractive index, it slows down and bends towards the normal line – the imaginary line perpendicular to the surface at the point of entry. This change in speed and direction manifests as the visible bending of the light beam. The other processes, such as reflection, diffraction, and dispersion, involve different mechanisms that do not primarily describe the bending of light at the interface of two media. Reflection refers to the bouncing back of light from a surface, diffraction pertains to the bending of waves around obstacles or the spreading out of waves through openings, and dispersion involves the separation of light into its component colors due to varying speeds of different wavelengths in a medium. In this case, the process specifically responsible for the bending of the laser beam entering the diamond is refraction.