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The speed of light in a medium is 200 × 10⁸ cm/s. Refractive index of a medium is ______ (c = 3 × 10⁸ m/s).

Asked in GUJCET 2025 · Snell's law, slabs and apparent depth

Answer: (3) 1.5

Step-by-step solution

Given: speed in the medium v = 200×10⁸ cm/s and c = 3×10⁸ m/s.

Idea: put both speeds in the same units before dividing. Since 1 cm = 10⁻² m, v = 200×10⁸×10⁻² = 2×10⁸ m/s.

The refractive index is n = c/v.

n = (3×10⁸)/(2×10⁸) = 1.5.

Skipping the centimetre-to-metre step would give n = 0.015, which is impossible: no medium carries light faster than vacuum, so n is never below 1.

So the refractive index of the medium is 1.5.

Why the other options are wrong

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