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Reflective property of a parabola. The reflective property states that if a parabola can reflect light, then light that enters it travelling parallel to the axis of symmetry is reflected toward the focus. This is derived from geometrical optics, based on the assumption that light travels in rays. Consider the parabola y = x 2. Since all ...
An oblique projection of a focus-balanced parabolic reflector. It is sometimes useful if the centre of mass of a reflector dish coincides with its focus.This allows it to be easily turned so it can be aimed at a moving source of light, such as the Sun in the sky, while its focus, where the target is located, is stationary.
(The parabolas are orthogonal for an analogous reason to confocal ellipses and hyperbolas: parabolas have a reflective property.) Analogous to confocal ellipses and hyperbolas, the plane can be covered by an orthogonal net of parabolas, which can be used for a parabolic coordinate system.
On the other hand, reflection groups are concrete, in the sense that each of its elements is the composite of finitely many geometric reflections about linear hyperplanes in some euclidean space. Technically, a reflection group is a subgroup of a linear group (or various generalizations) generated by orthogonal matrices of determinant -1. Each ...
This property has optical and acoustic applications similar to the reflective property of a parabola (see whispering gallery). Additionally, because of the focus-to-focus reflection property of ellipses, if the rays are allowed to continue propagating, reflected rays will eventually align closely with the major axis.
Diagram of Lambertian diffuse reflection. The black arrow shows incident radiance, and the red arrows show the reflected radiant intensity in each direction. When viewed from various angles, the reflected radiant intensity and the apparent area of the surface both vary with the cosine of the viewing angle, so the reflected radiance (intensity per unit area) is the same from all viewing angles.
Point Q is the reflection of point P through the line AB. In a plane (or, respectively, 3-dimensional) geometry, to find the reflection of a point drop a perpendicular from the point to the line (plane) used for reflection, and extend it the same distance on the other side. To find the reflection of a figure, reflect each point in the figure.
When reflection occurs from thin layers of material, internal reflection effects can cause the reflectance to vary with surface thickness. Reflectivity is the limit value of reflectance as the sample becomes thick; it is the intrinsic reflectance of the surface, hence irrespective of other parameters such as the reflectance of the rear surface.