Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Snell's law. Refraction of light at the interface between two media of different refractive indices, with n 2 > n 1. Since the velocity is lower in the second medium (v 2 < v 1), the angle of refraction θ 2 is less than the angle of incidence θ 1; that is, the ray in the higher-index medium is closer to the normal.
Illustration of tangential and normal components of a vector to a surface. In mathematics, given a vector at a point on a curve, that vector can be decomposed uniquely as a sum of two vectors, one tangent to the curve, called the tangential component of the vector, and another one perpendicular to the curve, called the normal component of the vector.
In differential geometry, the Frenet–Serret formulas describe the kinematic properties of a particle moving along a differentiable curve in three-dimensional Euclidean space , or the geometric properties of the curve itself irrespective of any motion. More specifically, the formulas describe the derivatives of the so-called tangent, normal ...
In geometry, the tangential angle of a curve in the Cartesian plane, at a specific point, is the angle between the tangent line to the curve at the given point and the x -axis. [1] (. Some authors define the angle as the deviation from the direction of the curve at some fixed starting point. This is equivalent to the definition given here by ...
The angle between the horizontal line and the shown diagonal is 1 2 (a + b). This is a geometric way to prove the particular tangent half-angle formula that says tan 1 2 (a + b) = (sin a + sin b) / (cos a + cos b). The formulae sin 1 2 (a + b) and cos 1 2 (a + b) are the ratios of the actual distances to the length ...
The polar angle may be called inclination angle, zenith angle, normal angle, or the colatitude. The user may choose to ignore the inclination angle and use the elevation angle instead, which is measured upward between the reference plane and the radial line—i.e., from the reference plane upward (towards to the positive z-axis) to the radial line.
Interface conditions describe the behaviour of electromagnetic fields; electric field, electric displacement field, and the magnetic field at the interface of two materials. The differential forms of these equations require that there is always an open neighbourhood around the point to which they are applied, otherwise the vector fields and H ...
The angle φ is the angle of inclination of the tangent line or the tangential angle. In geometry, the subtangent and related terms are certain line segments defined using the line tangent to a curve at a given point and the coordinate axes. The terms are somewhat archaic today but were in common use until the early part of the 20th century.