A useful measure of the quality of a fiber-optic cable such as those used in endoscopes and other medical equipment is the numerical aperture. The larger the numerical aperture, the more light will be carried by the fiber. If light is incident on the fiber (core index n₁, cladding index n₂) from a medium of index of refraction n, the numerical aperture of the fiber is n sin θmax, where θmax is the largest incident angle for which light will totally reflect as it travels along the fiber. Show that the numerical aperture is equal to .

Transcribed Image Text:

√n²-n²-