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  2. Refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction

    Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other waves such as sound waves and water waves also experience refraction. How much a wave is refracted is determined by the change in wave speed and the initial direction of wave propagation relative to the direction of change in speed.

  3. Atmospheric refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_refraction

    Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]

  4. Caustic (optics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caustic_(optics)

    There have been many different approaches to address the continuous problem. One approach uses an idea from transportation theory called optimal transport [10] to find a mapping between incoming light rays and the target surface. After obtaining such a mapping, the surface is optimized by adapting it iteratively using Snell's law of refraction ...

  5. Mirror - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror

    Sound waves are much longer than light waves, thus the object produces diffuse reflections in the visual spectrum. A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera.

  6. Looming and similar refraction phenomena - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looming_and_similar...

    Looming of the Canadian coast as seen from Rochester, New York, on April 16, 1871. Looming is the most noticeable and most often observed of these refraction phenomena. It is an abnormally large refraction of the object that increases the apparent elevation of the distant objects and sometimes allows an observer to see objects that are located below the horizon under normal conditions.

  7. Mirror image - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_image

    That is an example of chirality. In general, an object and its mirror image are called enantiomorphs. If a point of an object has coordinates (x, y, z) then the image of this point (as reflected by a mirror in the y, z plane) has coordinates (−x, y, z).

  8. Geometrical optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrical_optics

    For example, the propagation of light through a prism results in the light ray being deflected depending on the shape and orientation of the prism. Additionally, since different frequencies of light have slightly different indexes of refraction in most materials, refraction can be used to produce dispersion spectra that appear

  9. Specular reflection - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_reflection

    A ray of light is characterized by the direction normal to the wave front (wave normal). When a ray encounters a surface, the angle that the wave normal makes with respect to the surface normal is called the angle of incidence and the plane defined by both directions is the plane of incidence. Reflection of the incident ray also occurs in the ...