The vitreous humor, a transparent, gelatinous fluid that fills most of the eyeball, has an index of refraction of 1.34. Visible light ranges in wavelength from 400 nm (violet) to 700 nm (red), as measured in air. This light travels through the vitreous humor and strikes the rods and cones at the surface of the retina. What are the ranges of:

(a) The wavelength inside the vitreous humor?

(b) The frequency?

a) 298.5 nm, 522.4 nm and b) radiation frequency does not change

Explanation:

When electromagnetic radiation reaches a medium with a different index of refraction, the medium vibrates the molecules, as if it were a resonance process, whereby the medium vibrates at the same frequency as the incident light.

On the other hand, when the light reaches another medium its average speed within the medium changes, it is now less than the speed of light in a vacuum (c) for this to happen as we saw that the frequency is constant there must be a change in the wavelength of the radiation that is characterized by the ratio

λₙ = λ₀ / n

λₙ = 400 nm in the void

λₙ = 400 / 1.34

λₙ = 298.5 nm

λ₀ = 700 nm

λₙ = 700 / 1.34

λₙ = 522.4 nm

The radiation frequency does not change