Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Caustics produced by a glass of water, visible as patches of light Nephroid caustic at the bottom of a teacup Caustics made by the surface of water Caustics in shallow water In optics , a caustic or caustic network [ 1 ] is the envelope of light rays which have been reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that ...
Light rays coming from the zenith take the shortest-possible path (1 ⁄ 38) through the air mass, yielding less scattering. Light rays coming from the horizon take the longest-possible path through the air, yielding more scattering. [11] The blueness is at the horizon because the blue light coming from great distances is also preferentially ...
Liquid water and ice emit radiation at a higher rate than water vapour (see graph above). Water at the top of the troposphere, particularly in liquid and solid states, cools as it emits net photons to space. Neighboring gas molecules other than water (e.g. nitrogen) are cooled by passing their heat kinetically to the water.
The whole system composed by the Sun's rays, the observer's head, and the (spherical) water drops has an axial symmetry around the axis through the observer's head and parallel to the Sun's rays. The rainbow is curved because the set of all the raindrops that have the right angle between the observer, the drop, and the Sun, lie on a cone ...
Crepuscular rays are noticeable when the contrast between light and dark is most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight". [2] Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at dawn and dusk passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high Sun at noon.
Diffraction of light through the eyelashes; Haidinger's brush; Monocular diplopia (or polyplopia) from reflections at boundaries between the various ocular media; Phosphenes from stimulation other than by light (e.g., mechanical, electrical) of the rod cells and cones of the eye or of other neurons of the visual system; Purkinje images.
Light rays enter a raindrop from one direction (typically a straight line from the Sun), reflect off the back of the raindrop, and fan out as they leave the raindrop. The light leaving the raindrop is spread over a wide angle, with a maximum intensity at 40.89–42°.
In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, change direction, or reflect off surfaces, complicating analysis.