Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Ray (geometry)
In Euclidean geometry, a ray, or half-line, given two distinct points A (the origin) and B on the ray, is set of points C on the line containing points A and B such that A is not strictly between C and B.
O----O-----*---> A B C
Geometric optics
In geometric optics a ray or a (light) beam is a curve describing the direction in which light or other electromagnetic radiation is propagated. The ray in geometric optics is perpendicular to the wavefront in physical optics .
In most simple cases, light rays within a given medium are straight lines. Light passing from one medium to another undergoes refraction or total internal reflection following Snell's law.
See also
- diffraction
- Glossary of Riemannian and metric geometry#R for its meaning in Riemannian geometry.
Last updated: 05-24-2005 12:31:36
10-26-2009 08:16:03
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details