MCAT Chemical and Physical Foundations Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Guide

Snell's Law describes the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction when light passes through different media with varying refractive indices. The equation is mathematically expressed as the product of the refractive index of the first medium and the sine of the angle of incidence being equal to the product of the refractive index of the second medium and the sine of the angle of refraction. This is represented as n1sinθ1 = n2sinθ2.

In this equation, n1 and n2 represent the refractive indices of the two media, while θ1 and θ2 are the angles of incidence and refraction, respectively. This directly relates to how light bends when moving from one medium, such as air, to another medium, like water or glass, highlighting the wave nature of light.

The other choices pertain to different physical laws or principles: one describes the behavior of gases under changes in pressure and volume (the ideal gas law), another relates temperature and volume changes in gases (Charles's Law), and the last represents gravitational potential energy. None of these pertain to the behavior of light as described by Snell’s Law.