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Refractive Index of some common Liquids
Some common fluids and their refractive indexes
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The Refractive Index - n - of a medium is a measure for how much the speed of light is reduced inside the medium. The speed of light in a medium can be expressed as
v = c / n (1)
where
v = speed of light in the medium
c = speed of light in air or vacuum - approximately 3x108 meters per second
n = refractive index
The Refractive Index of common liquids are indicated in the table below:
| Fluid | Refractive Index - n - |
| Acetic Acid | 1.37 |
| Acetone | 1.36 |
| Alcohol, ethyl (ethanol) | 1.36 |
| Alcohol, methyl (methanol) | 1.33 |
| Alcohol, propyl | 1.38 |
| Benzene | 1.50 |
| Carbon disulfide | 1.63 |
| Carbon tetrachloride | 1.46 |
| Chloroform | 1.44 |
| Decane | 1.41 |
| Dodecane | 1.41 |
| Ether | 1.35 |
| Ethylene glycol | 1.43 |
| Fluorine (freon) refrigerant R-11 | 1.37 |
| Fluorine refrigerant R-12 | 1.29 |
| Fluorine refrigerant R-22 | 1.26 |
| Furan | 1.47 |
| Heptane | 1.38 |
| Hexane | 1.37 |
| Octane | 1.40 |
| Propane | 1.34 |
| Propylene | 1.36 |
| Propylene glycol | 1.43 |
| Toluene | 1.49 |
| Turpentine (wood) | 1.47 |
| Water | 1.33 |
Example - Speed of Light in Water
The speed of light in water can be calculated as
v = (3 108 m/s) / 1.33
= 2.26x108 m/s
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