Reflection, Refraction, and Ray Diagrams

what are the 2 laws of reflection

• angle of incident = angle of reflection

• incident ray, reflected ray, and normal lie on the same plane

what are the 2 laws of refraction

• incident ray, refracted ray, and normal ie on the same plane with the incident and refracted ray being opposite sides

• The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence and sine of the angle of refraction is constant.

what is rectilinear propagation?

describes how light always travels in straight lines

what is an incident ray?

incoming ray

what is a reflected ray?

out coming ray

what is the normal?

a line that is perpendicular to the surface

the angle of incidence is formed by…

an angle that forms between the incident ray and the normal

the angle of reflection is formed by…

an angle that forms between the reflected ray and the normal

what are the 2 types of reflection?

specular and diffuse reflection

what is specular reflection?

occurs when the incident rays bounce off a smooth surface producing predictable reflected rays travelling in uniform directions 

what is diffuse reflection?

occurs when incident rays bounce off a rough or uneven surface causing the reflected rays to scatter in many different directions

What are object image lines?

Object-image lines are used to determine where the virtual image will be.

Note: in plane mirrors, virtual and real image have the same distance from the mirror