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The variation in speed of light with wavelength is known as dispersion, and is also responsible for the familiar phenomenon in which light is separated into component colours by a prism. Separation occurs when the refractive index inside the prism varies with wavelength, so different wavelengths propagate at different speeds inside the prism ...
It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the response of the electronic structure of the material to the electromagnetic field of light, and is in general a function of the frequency, or wavelength, of the light, its polarization, and the angle of incidence.
The equation says the matter wave frequency in vacuum varies with wavenumber (= /) in the non-relativistic approximation. The variation has two parts: a constant part due to the de Broglie frequency of the rest mass ( ℏ ω 0 = m 0 c 2 {\displaystyle \hbar \omega _{0}=m_{0}c^{2}} ) and a quadratic part due to kinetic energy.
The 41.8% point is the wavelength-frequency-neutral peak (i.e. the peak in power per unit change in logarithm of wavelength or frequency). These are the points at which the respective Planck-law functions 1 / λ 5 , ν 3 and ν 2 / λ 2 , respectively, divided by exp ( hν / k B T ) − 1 attain their maxima.
The light wave traveling in the medium is the macroscopic superposition (sum) of all such contributions in the material: the original wave plus the waves radiated by all the moving charges. This wave is typically a wave with the same frequency but shorter wavelength than the original, leading to a slowing of the wave's phase velocity.
The result is that the angles determined by Snell's law also depend on frequency or wavelength, so that a ray of mixed wavelengths, such as white light, will spread or disperse. Such dispersion of light in glass or water underlies the origin of rainbows and other optical phenomena, in which different wavelengths appear as different colors.
In optics, Cauchy's transmission equation is an empirical relationship between the refractive index and wavelength of light for a particular transparent material. It is named for the mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy , who originally defined it in 1830 in his article "The refraction and reflection of light".
When light strikes the interface between a medium with refractive index n 1 and a second medium with refractive index n 2, both reflection and refraction of the light may occur. The Fresnel equations give the ratio of the reflected wave's electric field to the incident wave's electric field, and the ratio of the transmitted wave's electric ...