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Questions tagged [reflection]

This tag is for questions relating to reflection, the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. A familiar example of reflection comes from water waves; as the waves travel they reflect off objects that are floating in the water, and also reflect off the walls of the container holding the water.

4 votes
4 answers
178 views

Trapping light by total internal reflection

Consider the attached image. Light is passed through a circular prism in the form of a disc (by refraction) in a way so that the the angle made by the refracted ray with the normal is 45 degrees....
Nightwing's user avatar
  • 489
1 vote
1 answer
34 views

Total flux is bigger than radiation flux, error?

The topic of this question is the collection of radiation from the sun. (renewable energy course) The total radiation flux is $$I_\text{total} = I_\text{direct}+I_\text{diffracted}+I_\text{reflected} ....
Root Groves's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
69 views

Reflection of electromagnetic waves from dielectric

I have several questions regarding EMW reflection. If it will be helpful, I am thinking about the reflection of powerful EMW and problems like heating associated with it. Does EMW reflect from ...
AlexGenesis's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
8k views

Does the fingernail test for detecting two-way mirrors really work?

I was looking for the working of a two way mirror when I came across this video. The person says that if you place your finger on the mirror and there's no gap between the image and the finger, then ...
Stuti's user avatar
  • 702
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does a Magic Mirror work?

I recently found out about the Magic Mirror. Both sides of the mirror look the same, and it appears to be dark, if looked at closely, like sunglasses (but lighter in colour) but looks like a normal ...
Stuti's user avatar
  • 702
0 votes
1 answer
51 views

What causes light to scatter in a medium?

My understanding is that all mediums have a complex iindex of refraction where the real component is the "standard" index of refraction, and the imaginary component is the extinction ...
Chris Gnam's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
22 views

How do I calculated the second Reflection (2) of light in glass (which equations and tools)

How do I calculated the second Reflection (2) of light in glass (which equations and tools)
Le future de Demain's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
184 views

Complex Refractive Indices, Absorption, and Transparency

A complex refractive index is defined as $n = n_0 + \kappa$ where $n_0$ is the "standard" refractive index, and $\kappa$ is the optical extinction coefficient. The optical extinction ...
Chris Gnam's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
201 views

Lenses and missing reflection

I am wondering why reflected rays are not considered with lenses. If a ray strikes a surface, another is reflected off that striking point; however, this is not added when studying lenses, only ...
DisD's user avatar
  • 23
0 votes
1 answer
120 views

Fresnel Equations, Refraction, and Metals

I'm trying to make sense of how the fresnel equations apply to metals. Here are a few of the things I believe I understand: All reflections of light occur specularly. When an object appears to ...
Chris Gnam's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
31 views

Fresnel Equations and an Opaque Surface?

I'm trying to make sense of what actually happens to light when it interacts with an opaque surface. The fresnel equations give us the proportion of light which is reflected off the surface of a ...
Chris Gnam's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
18 views

Final image formation in these 2 cases:

Can someone please explain simply how we determine how many times we have to consider reflection and refraction to obtain final image. Example a: Here they only considered refraction twice to obtain ...
Alex Aboda's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
92 views

Energy of evanescent wave in total internal reflection

We know that the reflective coefficient in total internal reflection is 1, which means that all energy is reflected. But we also know that for evanescent wave, Poynting vector in the direction ...
km12180202's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
85 views

Keplerian telescope with parabolic mirrors

Is it possible to arrange two off axis parabolic mirrors (OPAs) to transform the emitted rays of a point source into a collimated beam, as in the figure below? That is, similar to a Keplerian ...
tush's user avatar
  • 117
0 votes
0 answers
75 views

Perceiving the rainbows

Famous Astrophysicist Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson, explains that whenever we observe a rainbow it appears exactly semi-circle to us. If another person is observing the same rainbow from a slightly ...
Shamant Desai's user avatar

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