What is a refracted wave? Give an example.

A refracted wave is a wave whose path has been bent

as a result of traveling out of one medium and into into

a different medium, or through a medium whose properties

change slightly and gradually over a substantial distance.

Example #1:

The light waves that enter your eyes as you look down from a

bridge and watch a fish in the creek below you. The fish is not

where you think it is. The light waves coming from it are refracted

when they travel out of the water and into the air. Your brain doesn't

include that bend in its calculations, and it naturally assumes that the

fish is in the direction the light waves are coming from. But it's actually

in a slightly different direction.

Example #2.

If you wear glasses or contacts, then all the light waves you see

through them are refracted on their way through your 'corrective

lenses' before they enter your eyes.

Example #3.

When you listen to an AM radio station at night that's located in

a city very far away from you, the radio waves you're receiving

are coming at you from a direction in the sky.

Now you KNOW that the radio station is not located there. Some of

the radio waves from the station leave the transmitting tower at an angle high above the ground, and head off into the sky. As they travel far through the air ... sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles ... the properties of the air change gradually, and the radio waves are gradually refracted as they travel, eventually curving downward toward the ground again.

(I'm writing this answer while I'm on a buisness trip to a city that's

about 650 miles from home. Two nights ago, while I was in the car,

I got a little bit curious, and I tuned the car radio to a popular AM radio

station back in my home town, just to see.

And there it was! Booming in. 5 by 9 with practically no Q R Mary.)