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A light ray is a line or curve that is perpendicular to the light's wavefronts (and is therefore collinear with the wave vector). A slightly more rigorous definition of a light ray follows from Fermat's principle, which states that the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time. [1]
A finite ray or real ray is a ray that is traced without making the paraxial approximation. [12] [13] A parabasal ray is a ray that propagates close to some defined "base ray" rather than the optical axis. [14] This is more appropriate than the paraxial model in systems that lack symmetry about the optical axis.
A ray of light is characterized by the direction normal to the wave front (wave normal). When a ray encounters a surface, the angle that the wave normal makes with respect to the surface normal is called the angle of incidence and the plane defined by both directions is the plane of incidence. Reflection of the incident ray also occurs in the ...
The "definition" of line in Euclid's Elements falls into this category. [1]: 95 Even in the case where a specific geometry is being considered (for example, Euclidean geometry), there is no generally accepted agreement among authors as to what an informal description of a line should be when the subject is not being treated formally.
In differential geometry, a caustic is the envelope of rays either reflected or refracted by a manifold. It is related to the concept of caustics in geometric optics . The ray's source may be a point (called the radiant) or parallel rays from a point at infinity, in which case a direction vector of the rays must be specified.
In topology, a curve is defined by a function from an interval of the real numbers to another space. [49] In differential geometry, the same definition is used, but the defining function is required to be differentiable. [53] Algebraic geometry studies algebraic curves, which are defined as algebraic varieties of dimension one. [54]
Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an initial point Directed half-line or ray, half of a directed or oriented line split at an initial point; Ray (graph theory), an infinite sequence of vertices such that each vertex appears at most once in the sequence and each two consecutive vertices in the sequence are the two endpoints of an edge in the graph
See the figures in this article for examples. The three defining points may also identify angles in geometric figures. For example, the angle with vertex A formed by the rays AB and AC (that is, the half-lines from point A through points B and C) is denoted ∠BAC or ^. Where there is no risk of confusion, the angle may sometimes be referred to ...