Why does a spoon in a glass of water seem to bend?
The apparent bend in the spoon’s stem comes from this change in light speed as the light travels between the water and the air. You see the spoon because rays of light are reflected from its surface. When these rays of light pass from the water into the air, they travel at a different speed.
When parallel rays of light travel through the water, some reach the interface first and begin to move faster. Others take longer to reach the air, so their change in speed is delayed longer. As a result, the path that the light follows is bent. This bending of the light path causes the spoon to appear to bend. If you go fishing and see a large fish in the water, you cast your bait in front of the place where the fish appears to be swimming. Because of refraction, the fish seems farther away than it actually is.
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Filed Under: Science
