The glass core of an optical fiber has an index of refraction 1.64. the index of refraction of the cladding is 1.50. part a what is the maximum angle between a light ray and the wall of the core if the ray is to remain inside the core?

To solve this problem it is necessary to apply the concepts related to the Snell Law of refraction.

Snell's law tells us that

Where,

= Refractive index for the material

= Angle of refraction

For this particular case we have that

The minimum angle and the maximum angle must be used.

Substituting,

The maximum angle will be calculated by substracting the value of minimum angle (90°)

Therefore the maximum angle that a light ray can make with the wall of the core is 23.84°

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