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.
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Using Fermat's principle to derive the Cartesian paraboloid
I am self-studying Optics by Pedrotti and I'm on the subject of geometric optics, specifically ideal Cartesian surfaces. These are reflecting or refracting surfaces that form perfect images. I was ...
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Plastic cup filled with water shiny surface [duplicate]
When I hold a plastic transparent cup half filled with water and see it from above then its sides (up to which water is filled )appear shiny. Some of my fingertips (which are holding glass ) are wet ...
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What happens to a single photon in case photoexcitation doesn't occur upon "hitting" an electron of a single atom
I'm having trouble finding sufficient answers that don't boil down to discussing materials.
Some people say that if a photon does not excite an electron it doesn't interact with it at all and just ...
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Can any mirror arrangement give an optical advantage?
I'm trying to see tiny movements in a membrane using a laser spot that shines on it, and looking at the reflected spot. I was wondering if it is possible for any plane mirror arrangement to give me ...
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Reflection of light by edges and corners of mirrors
Suppose I have a point object placed between mirrors inclined at angle $\theta$ with each other. What will happen to the ray that strikes the junction point of these mirrors? I'm looking for a ...
user386835
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What is the albedo of our Sun?
I think the Sun is the closest to a perfect natural black body we can get in the Solar System, if so then what happens to the light if I point a laser pointer at the Sun?
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Non-reflective material becomes reflective why? [duplicate]
Why an object (which is opaque) and non reflective becomes reflective if seen from a certain angle . Like I was seeing
grey plastic it became reflective when I saw it at a near parallel angle to ...
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How can evenescent coupling work if an evanescent field cannot transport energy?
This youtube video shows a simulation of evanescent coupling between a driven optical fiber and another that is not driven. I had never heard of evanescent fields so I looked it up on Wikipedia, where ...
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Reflection from a spherical surface
I am self-studying Optics by Pedrotti and I'm stuck on the algebra for an example of spherical reflection.
We have a point source at O that reflects off a spherical surface and creates a virtual image ...
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Free particle encountering an infinite potential barrier
I understand that a wave function cannot penetrate through a barrier that has infinite potential. However when the wave function reflects off from the barrier what does this look like? If we're in a ...
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Equation of a reflected wave at a fixed end
If $y1=Asin(kx-wt)$, it is identical with $y2=-Asin(wt-kx)$.
But then if I write a reflected equation of y1, it is -Asin(kx+wt), whereas the reflected equation for y2 becomes Asin(wt+kx) since both ...
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Why did Einstein include reflection of light from a moving mirror in his paper? [closed]
Einstein, in his 1905 relativity paper, allocates a section to the issue of reflection of light from a moving mirror and derives three formulas (angle, frequency, energy). What was his reason or ...
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Infinite reflection inside a glass loop
If you had a loop made of completely transparent glass (or other material), in the shape of a donut; think atomic collider (but probably not needing to be so large :) ), and you introduced light from ...
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It's about the apparent position of anything in case of refraction
So my question is that,what actually the apparent position of let's say a coin in water seen by us is??
It's a small experiment in textbooks that take a coin in a shallow and wider bowl and mark the ...
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Why is deep open ocean blue?
If we assume the ocean is sufficiently deep so that the blue light transmitted inside the water gets absorbed completely before it reaches the ocean floor and be scattered back towards the surface, ...
