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  2. Snell's law - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell's_law

    Snell's law (also known as the Snell–Descartes law, the ibn-Sahl law, [1] and the law of refraction) is a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, when referring to light or other waves passing through a boundary between two different isotropic media, such as water, glass, or air.

  3. Fresnel equations - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_equations

    The Fresnel equations ... [15] [16] are known respectively as Fresnel's sine law and Fresnel's tangent law. ... Let the angle of refraction, ...

  4. Refractive index - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index

    The most general form of this equation is = + + +, where n is the refractive index, λ is the wavelength, and A, B, C, etc., are coefficients that can be determined for a material by fitting the equation to measured refractive indices at known wavelengths.

  5. Dioptrique - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioptrique

    Descartes' third model creates a mathematical equation for the Law of Refraction, characterized by the angle of incidence equalling the angle of refraction. In today's notation, the law of refraction states, sin i = n sin r, where i is the angle of incidence, r is the angle of refraction, and n is the index of refraction. Using a tennis ball ...

  6. Fermat's principle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_principle

    The ordinary law of refraction was at that time attributed to René Descartes (d. 1650), who had tried to explain it by supposing that light was a force that propagated instantaneously, or that light was analogous to a tennis ball that traveled faster in the denser medium, [44] [45] either premise being inconsistent with Fermat's.

  7. Refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction

    In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. [1] Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other waves such as sound waves and water waves also experience refraction. How much a wave ...

  8. Thin lens - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_lens

    Refraction of a thin planoconvex lens. Consider a thin lens with a first surface of radius and a flat rear surface, made of material with index of refraction .. Applying Snell's law, light entering the first surface is refracted according to ⁡ = ⁡, where is the angle of incidence on the interface and is the angle of refraction.

  9. Ibn Sahl (mathematician) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Sahl_(mathematician)

    Ibn Sahl dealt with the optical properties of curved mirrors and lenses and has been described as the discoverer of the law of refraction (Snell's law). [9] [10] [11] Ibn Sahl uses this law to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses.