The solution at revision #19509 of , by naz. This is not the current version.

Statement

13.2.2. a) The apparent depth of a reservoir, when looking vertically downward, is m. What is its true depth?

b) An airplane flies over a submarine submerged at a small depth, at an altitude of km. What will the altitude of the airplane appear to be when observed from the submarine?

Solution

a) Consider two rays: one goes vertically upward from a point on the bottom , so it does not refract and intersects the water surface at point ; the other goes at a small angle to the vertical, intersects the water surface at point , and emerges at an angle .

The apparent bottom will be at the intersection of the vertical line and the emerging ray.

From Snell's law, using :

Express the segment in two triangles:

b) The solution is analogous to part (a), except here the extension of the refracted ray will go beyond the true bottom, and the apparent depth will be greater:

Answer

a)

b)