What is total internal reflection? when does it occur?

Total internal reflection is the phenomenon that occurs when a ray of light travels from a medium of high refractive index to a lower refractive index medium.

In this sense, the ray is refracted in such a way that it is not able to cross the surface between both media, being completely reflected.

This is the physical principle used in optical fiber to conduct light through the fiber without energy loss.

It is important to note, that this phenomenon occurs at a limit angle , which is calculated from Snell's law, substituting the angle of the second medium by :

Where and are the refractive indexes of both media.

number of electrons for neutral cl