system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does refraction work?

I understand that light "slows down" in different mediums. How does the light interact with the different medium?
gpt
The electric field causes the electron clouds of the atoms inside to oscillate. Oscillating charges of course radiate with same frequency as the incident radiation. Inside the dielectric, when you sum over all the oscillating dipoles, the superimposed fields has the net effect of extinguishing the incident field at all points but leaves a remaining wave traveling with the reduced speed v=c/n, as per the extinction theorem.