gogltactical.blogg.se

However, if the surface of the mirror is curved, the angles of reflection are different at different points on the surface.

This happens because the light rays change direction when they go from one transparent material (air) into another (water). For example, when you look at a spoon in a glass of water, the submerged part of the spoon appears to be in a different place than expected. The third law governs how light rays behave when they pass between two different media, such as air and water. The second states that when a light ray encounters a smooth, shiny (or conducting) surface, such as a mirror, the ray bounces off that surface. The first law states that light rays move through similar transparent media in straight lines. Geometric optics treats light as continuous rays (as opposed to waves or particles) that move through transparent media according to three laws. (The other class is physical optics.) Geometric optics Geometric optics is one of two broad classes of optics, the field that "deals with the propagation of light through transparent media," according to Richard Fitzpatrick, a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin, in lecture notes for a course in Electromagnetism and Optics. The reflection of light rays is one of the major aspects of geometric optics the other is refraction, or the bending of light rays.