Why Snell's Law is actually a differential equation
Audience: high-school
Tags: physicsopticssnells-lawrefractionfiber-optic-cable
How does one simulate a ray of light traveling through a substance with infinitely changing indices of refraction? How can Snell's Law be pushed to its limits? To analyze this complex topic, we start by discussing gradient index fiber optic cables, their uses, and use ideas from that discussion to build the mathematical tools needed to model a ray of light in these strange new mediums.
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I actually work in the photonics space, so I’ve seen these kinds of explanations a number of times. You nailed it! I really like that you started from the ground up. GRIN fibers (nice job working your way into that jargon so the watcher learns it, btw) are really not intuitive, and having this video as a resource is invaluable! I love the conversational, progressive approach. You clearly took your time to think about how to develop this topic in the viewers mind so they feel like they’re along for the ride. I think a high schooler could follow along with this just fine. It’s honestly not even a bad video to show to an undergrad who’s taking an intro to optics class. This might have benefited from being broken into multiple videos to allow some explicit breakpoints in lessons-learned, but to answer the question of “what the heck does a GRIN fiber do?” this is certainly top-tier.
Nice Problem . But the video felt a bit fast and i think could’ve dived deeper into the first problem elaborating on some other aspects of the problem
sound only comes out of one of my earpods. but interesting!
Cool choice of topic! Also, well explained and well motivated. A bit too fast paced for me sometimes and the ending is a bit unsatisfying. Nonetheless, a well made and rather unique video. Thank you for putting it out there!
Love the use of visuals to explain the topic more clearly. (Just so you know, the sound only comes out of the left side)
I loved that the video ends with some fun thoughts/next steps to motivate viewers to understand the content of the video and continue studying, specifically with showing the set up for the problem of finding the path for light that optimizes time. For a person who only has a passing familiarity with Snell’s Law, I found it to move too quickly, but I did enjoy seeing the math that goes into it.