Sentence examples for incident ray from inspiring English sources
The plane of incidence (AON) is the plane that contains the incident ray and the normal (ON, a line perpendicular to the surface) to the plane of the surface such that they intersect at the surface.
A line OE is now drawn parallel to the incident ray BP extending as far as the circle representing the refractive index n of the medium containing the incident ray.
The reflected ray is always in the plane defined by the incident ray and the normal to the surface.
In Figure 3B, the incident ray BP strikes a refracting surface at P. The normal to the surface is PC.
The law of reflection states that, on reflection from a smooth surface, the angle of the reflected ray is equal to the angle of the incident ray.
Strong ionospheric reflections occur only below a maximum usable frequency (MUF), which is determined by the zenith angle of the incident ray and by the ionization density of the reflecting layer.
In 1621 Willebrord Snell, a professor of mathematics at Leiden, discovered a simple graphical procedure for determining the direction of the refracted ray at a surface when the incident ray is given.
Most of the waves of the incident ray will be transmitted across the boundary (the surface of the water or glass) as a refracted ray making an angle r with the normal, the rest being reflected.
For the geometrically minded, the refractive index is the ratio of the sine of the angle of the incident ray to the sine of the angle of the transmitted ray both angles measured from a line perpendicular to the boundary.
Caption: Reflection consists of two rays: an incoming or 'incident' ray and an outgoing or 'reflected' ray.
