The palisade cells in a plant\'s leaves make use of total internal reflection to
ID: 1552826 • Letter: T
Question
The palisade cells in a plant's leaves make use of total internal reflection to maximize the chances that light passes through their chloroplasts. Here we treat the cells as the rectangular prism shown in the diagram (ignoring the 3rd dimension). If the interior of the cell is mostly water (n = 1.33), what is the largest angle a light ray can have from the normal of the upper surface before it risks exiting the cell through the sides? Keep 1 digit after decimal point. Your answer should be formatted like: 0.0Explanation / Answer
For Total internal reflection,
A = arcsin(1/1.33) = 48.75 degree
By snells law, sin theta = 1.33* sin 41.25 degree = 0.8769
Theta = arcsin 0.8769
= 61.27 degree
=