All Questions
18
questions
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 ...
- 307
1
vote
0
answers
65
views
What are the physics behinde reflection and refraction of electromagnetic wave at a dialectric surface?
I have understood the most of the equations that lead to the Fresnel-Equations from electromagnetic waves and Maxwell equations. But not enough to understand what is happening. So I don't ask for an ...
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
90
views
Reflection versus Refraction with Waves
I am a middle school science teacher and we teach a unit on waves (mostly about sound) My students struggle to identify whether a wave (usually sound) is refracting or reflecting across many different ...
- 33
0
votes
1
answer
191
views
Reflection of sound wave passing through gas to solid and through solid to gas
Why following are true in both cases?.
1- Ultrasound passing through a metal block(solid medium) will not pass through a cavity (air medium) inside the block.
I got some explanation as speed of sound ...
- 101
2
votes
2
answers
532
views
Why do we generally get reflected and transmitted waves that too having same frequency as the incident one?
In a MIT OCW video lecture, a professor discusses a wave on a string having some density moving towards another string. Both of which are joined but have different densities.
He goes on to analyse it,...
- 1,270
2
votes
1
answer
314
views
When (visible) light waves get reflected, why are the incident ray, reflected ray and normal coplanar?
I was told that when a wave of visible light is reflected (or refracted) then the incident ray, the normal to the reflective surface (or interface of two optical media) and the reflected and refracted ...
- 363
2
votes
2
answers
598
views
Why are TV signals weaker during bad weather?
I know that the TV and radio waves that are received and transmitted are non mechanical waves.
However during storms or bad weather in general, the television signals get weaker and the program ...
- 1,233
1
vote
1
answer
72
views
How do you tell if a wave is reflected or refracted at an interface?
My physics textbook says that a wave traveling through medium $1$ will enter medium $2$ if medium $1$ has a higher index of refraction. Otherwise, the wave will be reflected. This makes absolutely no ...
- 127
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Do clouds reflect radio waves?
Do clouds reflect radio waves? Specifically, those waves used in radars.
And, what kind of matter refracts or reflects radio waves?
- 31
0
votes
1
answer
160
views
Reflection and transmission of EM waves
I'm reading "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by David J. Girffiths and the following assumption is confusing me:
We have an EM wave inciding on a surface,
Then, when applying the boundary ...
- 115
0
votes
1
answer
92
views
Literature on Reflection/Refraction of Waves
I completed the first year of my bachelor in Physics and astronomy in July. One of the courses was 'Waves and Optics' which we used the second half of Alonso & Finn's 'Fields and Waves' for.
I ...
1
vote
0
answers
210
views
Proof of reflected and refracted waves being in the same plane as that of the incident wave and its projection on a planar interface
Please give a proof of reflected and refracted waves being in the same plane as that of the incident wave and its projection on an ideal planar interface between two linear, homogeneous, isotropic, ...
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
525
views
Wave interference on window film coating
"The windows in an office tower are coated with a film to minimize reflected light of wavelength 550 nm. If the glass has an index of refraction of 1.52 and the film coating has an index of refraction ...
- 195
0
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What does non magnetic and nonconducting mean in reflection and transmission of waves?
So, we were ask to consider the Fresnel Equations for parallel and perpendicular waves (with index of refractions).
Then, we are ask to prove some equations in which "... for nonmagnetic non-...
1
vote
0
answers
54
views
How much can a thin layer of hi-speed material within a low-speed volume block a wave due to total internal reflection?
Consider a block of isotropic material with compression wave velocity associated with it, $v_1$. Consider a thin flat layer of high compression wave velocity $v_2, v_2>v_1$ that is buried within ...
- 302