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taneqtoday at 3:31 AM1 replyview on HN

Light’s still slower in glass than in a vacuum, though, or it wouldn’t refract at the transition between the two.


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walrus01today at 3:36 AM

Right, and it varies with what type of glass, google "refractive index of glass".

If you google image search "refraction fiber optics" you'll get some decent pictorial examples of what I meant by photons bouncing off the interior walls of a 9/125 SM fiber optic strand billions/trillions of times on its path, I guess I was trying to write an extremely simplified explanation of refraction in something like a typical SMF-28e / G.652.D fiber.