A paperweight consists of a 8.55-cm-thick plastic cube. Within the plastic a thin sheet of paper is embedded, parallel to opposite faces of the cube. On each side of the paper is printed a different joke that can be read by looking perpendicularly straight into the cube. When read from one side (the top), the apparent depth of the paper in the plastic is 4.02 cm. When read from the opposite side (the bottom), the apparent depth of the paper in the plastic is 1.56 cm. What is the index of refraction of the plastic

Explanation:

Given:

Thickness of the paperweight cube,

apparent depth from one side of the inbuilt paper in the plastic cube,

apparent depth from the other side of the inbuilt paper in the plastic cube,

Now as we know that refractive index is given as:

Since refractive index for an amorphous solid is an isotropic quantity so it remains same in all the direction for this plastic.

Now the refractive index:

see the picture for the vector

the magnitude of the vector by pythagorean theorem

r = √( (-10)^2 + (3)^2 ) = √109

magnitude = √109 units

the direction angle between vector and x-axis is

tan^(-1)(3/10) = 16.699

so the direction is approximately 16.7 degrees north of west