TITLE: Total internal reflection in a simple pane of glass - why can we see through?
QUESTION [2 upvotes]: Consider looking through a glass window pane at high angles of incidence.  At the front face of the pane, there is no total internal reflection since the light is traversing an air to glass interface.  But at the back face, the light traverses a glass to air interface and so should undergo total internal reflection at some angle. The critical angle for glass to air is approx 42 deg, so, even accounting for refraction, why can we still see through a pane of glass at angles well beyond 42 deg?

REPLY [1 votes]: The conditions for total internal reflection from an air-common glass interface are:
The light has to be travelling in the glass.
The angle of incidence has to be larger than the critical angle.
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