Skip to main content

What is Law of Reflection ?

The law of reflection governs the reflection of light-rays off smooth conducting surfaces, such as polished metal or metal-coated glass mirrors.

Consider a light-ray incident on a plane mirror, as shown .

The law of reflection states that the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface of the mirror all lie in the same plane. Furthermore, the angle of reflection $r$ is equal to the angle of incidence $i$. Both angles are measured with respect to the normal to the mirror.






The law of reflection also holds for non-plane mirrors, provided that the normal at any point on the mirror is understood to be the outward pointing normal to the local tangent plane of the mirror at that point. For rough surfaces, the law of reflection remains valid. It predicts that rays incident at slightly different points on the surface are reflected in completely different directions, because the normal to a rough surface varies in direction very strongly from point to point on the surface. This type of reflection is called diffuse reflection, and is what enables us to see non-shiny objects.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is Reflection of Light ?

Reflection is a very common word and is related to the fields of physics and mathematics. The basic meaning of a reflection is  ‘Something Returned in Response’ . Even in our conversation we use this term at times, to mean a some one’s reaction. In optics, it relates to an image of an object. Light rays are basically wave motions and they are capable of being reflected by an interface in between two mediums. Such interfaces are called  Light Reflectors .  The most common Light reflector is the one we use many times a day, which is nothing but a plane mirror. But it is not only a plane mirror reflects light. Even a curved mirror does that though the nature of reflection of light by curved mirrors is different. YouTube Link -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PRRUgoTSro Credits -  http://physics.tutorvista.com/light/reflection.html

What is HUNTERS MOON ?

The term “ Hunters Moon ” is used traditionally to refer to a full moon that appears during the month of October. It is preceded by the appearance of a “Harvest Moon”, which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox (which falls on the 22nd or 23rd of September). It is also known as a sanguine or “ Blood Moon ". The Hunter’s Moon typically appears in October, except once every four years when it doesn’t appear until November.  The name dates back to the First Nations of North America. It is so-called because it was during the month of October, when the deers had fatted themselves over the course of the summer, that hunters tracked and killed prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the coming winter. YouTube Link  -   http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hunters-moon-2016-what-can-9050088 Credits -  https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3819/10355721434_6992b719fa_b.jpg

What is Universe ?

The universe is all the matter, energy, and space that exist. We can observe only a part of it - the observable universe. The entire, universe, including the part we cannot see, may be infinite. Galaxies form and evolve within an expanding and cooling universe. Because light takes billions of years to cross the cosmos, we see distant galaxies as they were at earlier times. Astronomers not only theorize about cosmic evolution - they can actually observe its various stages. The Big Bang is the scientific description of the origin of the cosmos. It describes the beginning of the universe as an explosion of space, which has expanded and cooled ever since. If we rewind the expansion of space and go backward in time, galaxies crowd closer and closer together in the past. Ultimately, all matter and energy is compressed at extremely high density and temperature. The observable universe fits within a volume smaller than a grain of sand. That superdense medium exploded in the Big Bang, l