Reflection And Refraction
The Basics
Reflection
When light passes into a mirror and bounces off of it reflection is used. Two terms are used; The Angle of Incidence and The Angle of Reflection. The angle of incidence is the angle which the light hits the mirror and the angle of reflection is the angle that the light is in when coming out. The angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection.
Refraction
When light passes through a non-opaque object refraction causes the light to bounce off in a different direction; this also causes the light spectrum to become visible at certain angles.
Two terms are used; Angle I and Angle R. Angle R indicates the angle which the light goes into the object and angle I indicates the angle which the light comes out of the object
- I > r going into the block
- R > I going out of the block