Why does a spoon look bent when placed in water?

• A. Light always travels faster in water than in air.
• B. Water changes color the light, causing bending.
• C. Refraction slows light and bends it.
• D. Water magnifies light, making the spoon appear bent.

Answer: (C)

Light changes speed when it crosses from one material to another, and that change in speed makes the light bend. This bending at the boundary between water and air is called refraction. For a spoon partly in water, light from the submerged part travels through water and then enters air, bending as it exits the water. Your eye traces the light back in a straight line, so the ray appears to come from a point that’s not in the actual location of the spoon. Because different parts of the spoon send rays that bend by different amounts, the submerged portion seems displaced, creating the illusion that the spoon is bent at the water surface. This isn’t due to color changes or magnification; it’s the refraction of light changing direction at the water–air boundary.