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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. Reflection (physics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_(physics)

    Reflection of light is either specular (mirror-like) or diffuse (retaining the energy, but losing the image) depending on the nature of the interface.In specular reflection the phase of the reflected waves depends on the choice of the origin of coordinates, but the relative phase between s and p (TE and TM) polarizations is fixed by the properties of the media and of the interface between them.

  4. Optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optics

    For flat mirrors, the law of reflection implies that images of objects are upright and the same distance behind the mirror as the objects are in front of the mirror. The image size is the same as the object size. The law also implies that mirror images are parity inverted, which we perceive as a left-right inversion. Images formed from ...

  5. Specular reflection - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_reflection

    Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface. [ 1 ] The law of reflection states that a reflected ray of light emerges from the reflecting surface at the same angle to the surface normal as the incident ray, but on the opposing side of the surface normal in the plane formed by ...

  6. Geometrical optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrical_optics

    For flat mirrors, the law of reflection implies that images of objects are upright and the same distance behind the mirror as the objects are in front of the mirror. The image size is the same as the object size. (The magnification of a flat mirror is equal to one.) The law also implies that mirror images are parity inverted, which is perceived ...

  7. Lambert's cosine law - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert's_cosine_law

    A surface which obeys Lambert's law is said to be Lambertian, and exhibits Lambertian reflectance. Such a surface has a constant radiance / luminance , regardless of the angle from which it is observed; a single human eye perceives such a surface as having a constant brightness, regardless of the angle from which the eye observes the surface.

  8. Fermat's principle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_principle

    Mr. Laplace seems to be unacquainted with this most essential principle of one of the two theories which he compares; for he says, that "it is remarkable" that the Huygenian law of extraordinary refraction agrees with the principle of Fermat; which he would scarcely have observed, if he had been aware that the law was an immediate consequence ...

  9. Huygens–Fresnel principle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens–Fresnel_principle

    He was able to provide a qualitative explanation of linear and spherical wave propagation, and to derive the laws of reflection and refraction using this principle, but could not explain the deviations from rectilinear propagation that occur when light encounters edges, apertures and screens, commonly known as diffraction effects.