he speed of light in a substance is slower than in a vacuum since the light is being absorbed and reemitted by the atoms in the sample. Since the density of a liquid usually decreases with temperature, it is not surprising that the speed of light in a liquid will normally increase as the temperature increases. Thus, the index of refraction normally decreases as the temperature increases for a liquid. For many organic liquids the index of refraction decreases by approximately 0.0005 for every 1 °C increase in temperature. However for water the variation is only about -0.0001/°C.
