Law Of Reflection
Alain De Leon
2nd Period Physics
5/24/11
Law of Reflection
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The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence of a
wave or stream of particles reflecting from a boundary,
conventionally measured from the normal to the interface (not
the surface itself), is equal to the angle of reflection, measured
from the same interface,
- The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection
- The incident ray, the normal, and the reflected ray are
coplanar
Specular Reflection
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Specular reflection (regular reflection) occurs when incident
parallel rays are also reflected parallel from a smooth surface. If
the surface is rough (on a microscopic level), parallel incident
rays are no longer parallel when reflected. This results in
diffuse reflection (irregular reflection). The laws of reflection
apply to diffuse reflection. The irregular surface can be
considered to be made up of a large number of small planar
reflecting surfaces positioned at slightly different angles.
Indirect (or diffuse) lighting produces soft shadows. It
produces less eye strain than harsher, direct lighting.
Fermat’s principal
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Pierre de Fermat, a French lawyer came up with a principal that
can be used to derive the law of reflection, the path taken
between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be
traversed in the least time . Mathematically, It is written as