Measuring the Molecular Polarizability of Air
Optics
2009-07-07 v1 Physics Education
Abstract
We present an update of the "refractive index of air" experiment commonly used in optics and undergraduate advanced labs. The refractive index of air is based on the average molecular polarizability, which we measured from the period of the phase shift in a Michelson interferometer as a function of pressure. Our value of the average molecular polarizability of air is \gamma_mol = 2.133 \pm 0.032 \times 10^{-29} m^3 (95% CI) and from this we find the refractive index of air at atmospheric pressure to be n = 1.0002651(66), which is in agreement with the accepted value of n=1.000271375(6).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0907.0782,
title = {Measuring the Molecular Polarizability of Air},
author = {M. J. Madsen and D. R. Brown and S. R. Krutz and M. J. Milliman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0907.0782},
year = {2009}
}