There are many threads on this topic (like this one) but one aspect about the equation $ v = \lambda\nu $ still confuses me.
I have read that frequency does not change when light crosses into different media. But since light traveling in any media has a slower speed than light traveling in a vacuum, clearly the wavelength $ \lambda $ must be reduced in order to satisfy the above equation.
My question is: how can frequency remain constant while wavelength decreases?
The equation $ v = \lambda \nu $ suggests that wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional, so if one decreases, the other should increase. But when light crosses into a new medium, if wavelength changes but frequency doesn't, that seems to imply that the wavelength of light and frequency of light are unrelated.
Best Answer
I may not be understanding the source of your difficulty. There are three facts here.
First, the speed, frequency and wavelength are related as $v = \lambda \nu$.
Second, the frequency of light remains the same when crossing the interfaces between media. This is a consequence of ensuring that the continuity conditions implied by Maxwell's equations are satisfied across the interface. If there were a frequency change, there could be no fixed phase relationship between time-varying fields either side of the boundary, so (for example) the tangential components of the E-fields and H-fields could not be continuous. If this is your problem, then your question is a duplicate of Why doesn't the frequency of light change during refraction?
Third, the speed of light is slower, by a factor $\sqrt{\mu_r \epsilon_r}$, in a material with relative permeabilities or permittivities greater than unity. Again, this is a simple consequence of solving Maxwell's equations in media with finite polarisation and/or magnetisation. See for example Why does larger permittivity of a medium cause light to propagate slower?
If you accept these three facts then the behaviour of light as it crosses from one medium to another is not mysterious. The speed is not constant, therefore there isn't an inverse relation between the frequency and wavelength. The frequency is constant, therefore the speed and wavelength are proportional.