Refractive Index Of Water With Varying Salt Content

[james f]

Hi this is my first post

 

apologies if it's in the wrong forum

 

I would like to know..

 

for a given constant temperature (say 20 degree c for example)and a constant wavelength of light (choose a normal value), how the refractive index of water varies with density?

 

I am varying density with salinity (table salt) in my lab, does the chemical difference affect the refractive index also? is the change in n due to chemical makeup negligible compared to the change in n due to density.

 

what i would love to see is some data with water varying in density from 1000kg/m3 to 1060kg/m3 plotted against n

 

i've been googling for hours already

 

thank you

[Qfwfq]

what i would love to see is some data with water varying in density from 1000kg/m3 to 1060kg/m3 plotted against n

You could always rig an optical experiment to measure the index. I don't know where to find the data that you're seeking.

 

I think it's worth bearing in mind that the refractive index is mostly a matter of dielectric constant (effective at the frequency of the EM wave) so it typically has a lot to do with the electric charges in the material. The masses of the atoms involved ought to attenuate the polarization effect at very high frequencies. Because of this, I don't expect it to be a simple dependence on density. I expect adding salt maybe gives a slight increase of refractive index but I don't think it is huge.

[modest]

You might check here:

 

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA024800&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

 

Section 4.2 looks like it starts with the data/tables.

 

~modest

[Qfwfq]

You might check here:

Seems to be exactly what the fella wants! As usual yo da man to mine the web for information about a given thing.

[james f]

You might check here:

 

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA024800&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

 

Section 4.2 looks like it starts with the data/tables.

 

~modest

 

that's excellent your google skills put mine to shame. seriously though thank you very much!