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A surface which obeys Lambert's law is said to be Lambertian, and exhibits Lambertian reflectance. Such a surface has a constant radiance / luminance , regardless of the angle from which it is observed; a single human eye perceives such a surface as having a constant brightness, regardless of the angle from which the eye observes the surface.
Reflection of light is either specular (mirror-like) or diffuse (retaining the energy, but losing the image) depending on the nature of the interface.In specular reflection the phase of the reflected waves depends on the choice of the origin of coordinates, but the relative phase between s and p (TE and TM) polarizations is fixed by the properties of the media and of the interface between them.
Alhazen was the first physicist to give complete statement of the law of reflection. [75] [76] [77] He was first to state that the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface all lie in a same plane perpendicular to reflecting plane. [17] [78]
The relationship between these angles is given by the law of reflection: =, and Snell's law: = . The behavior of light striking the interface is explained by considering the electric and magnetic fields that constitute an electromagnetic wave , and the laws of electromagnetism , as shown below .
Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface. [ 1 ] The law of reflection states that a reflected ray of light emerges from the reflecting surface at the same angle to the surface normal as the incident ray, but on the opposing side of the surface normal in the plane formed by ...
Hero of Alexandria, in his Catoptrics (1st century CE), showed that the ordinary law of reflection off a plane surface follows from the premise that the total length of the ray path is a minimum. [35] Ibn al-Haytham, an 11th-century polymath later extended this principle to refraction, hence giving an early version of the Fermat's principle ...
For flat mirrors, the law of reflection implies that images of objects are upright and the same distance behind the mirror as the objects are in front of the mirror. The image size is the same as the object size. (The magnification of a flat mirror is equal to one.) The law also implies that mirror images are parity inverted, which is perceived ...
Snell's law (also known as the Snell–Descartes law, the ibn-Sahl law, [1] and the law of refraction) is a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, when referring to light or other waves passing through a boundary between two different isotropic media, such as water, glass, or air.