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-2 votes
0 answers
61 views

Relativity problem about light signals and rockets equipped with mirrors [closed]

I find in a relativity book a problem that states: "A rocket with its own length $L$ moves away from Earth at a constant velocity $v$. A radar signal emitted from a ground station is reflected ...
idefix's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
3 answers
31 views

Convergence of rays at focal plane after reflection from concave mirror

My teacher taught us that rays parallel to each other(but not necessarily parallel to the principal axis), after reflection from a concave mirror,get converged at a sharp point somewhere on the focal ...
NPC's user avatar
  • 21
5 votes
2 answers
231 views

Huygens' principle and the laws of reflection/refraction

As I understand the Huygens principle, all points on the wavefront are sources of secondary spherical wavelets and the tangent to these wavelets will form new wavefront. This is used to prove the ...
Yevgeniy P's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

What percentage of light gets scattered by a mirror?

Sunlight strikes a mirror at a 45 degree angle. The vast majority of light will be reflected about the normal. Some light will be absorbed by the mirror. Some light will be transmitted through the ...
causative's user avatar
  • 912
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is there a name for the number of '9's in numbers such as 0.999 (where it would be 3)?

I am doing an optics simulation involving transmission and reflection coefficients very close to 1, such as 0.999. While I was an undergraduate student, a professor mentioned that, in certain fields, ...
jcuk's user avatar
  • 93
0 votes
1 answer
27 views

Beam displacement at focal point

I'm working on a project that uses galvanometers with mirrors. They're configured to have a focal point of 175mm. The motors rotate at 1 mechanical degree per 500mV, that will be 2 degrees optical per ...
j.valerio's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
35 views

What happens when a linear polarized EM wave encounters a perpendicular mesh of wires (which are electrically connected)?

Assume a radio wave with wavelength 1 m is traveling in the negative z direction when it encounters a grid of closely spaced wires (say, 10 cm separation) laying in the xy plane, with each wire ...
articpenguin's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

How to determine if an observer can see an object with multiple mirrors?

How do I determine if an observer can see an object with multiple mirrors? I came across this image online and I am wondering if the observer (point O) see the object (point A) My attempt: I tried ...
Astrovis's user avatar
  • 187
0 votes
4 answers
1k views

How does the mirror know what’s behind the paper?

I found this on social media. Although it was posted for fun, this is a valid question: How does the mirror know what’s behind the paper? Show me how light reflected from the egg reaches the mirror.
Earth is a Spoon's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
39 views

Pointing flash at LCD television creates a weird diffraction effect

I was looking around my room for something with my phone’s flash on, and noticed a very unique pattern reflecting off of the television. FYI. The flash is white. Any idea why it diffracts like that? ...
RedP's user avatar
  • 390
2 votes
4 answers
133 views

Reflection due to wave nature of light

In my high school, I am studying geometrical optics. I studied why smooth surfaces like mirrors form an image of an object but rough surfaces like a wall don't (due to regular reflection and irregular ...
Himanshu Nirwam's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
47 views

Why are Fresnel coefficients not symmetric?

When talking about reflection, we have the following coefficients for the electric field: $$r_{\perp}=\frac{n_1\cos(i)-n_2\cos(t)}{n_1\cos(i)+n_2\cos(t)} \\ r_{\parallel}=\frac{n_2\cos(i)-n_1\cos(t)}{...
Krum Kutsarov's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
46 views

How can a greater than 1 reflectance coefficient be explained in $\rm SiC$-$\rm SiO_2$ interface?

I ran a simulation using the Transfer Matrix Method to plot the R,T and A curves for a SiC->SiO2 interface. There's a region of incident energies where the |r|^2 I get is higher than 1 and the ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
2 answers
72 views

Why total reflection happens at only 1 angle?

The critical angle can be intuitively understood by Snell's law.If the incident medium has a bigger diffraction index than the refracted medium then according to Snell's law the refracted ray will be ...
Root Groves's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

What will be the color of red laser pointer spot on green surface?

I have read this discussion enter link description here , yet I want to make things more clear. In ideal conditions is it true that red laser pointer spot will appear on white sutrface as red while on ...
Igor's user avatar
  • 73

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