The reflection of light in rippled surfaces

✍ Scribed by M. Minnaert

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1942
• Weight: 495 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8914
• DOI: 10.1016/s0031-8914(42)80025-7

✦ Synopsis

The reflection of a distant source of light in a system of parallel ripples is seen as a slanting pillar of light, of which the inclination is calculated. The reflection in a system of circular ripples has the form of an hyperbola, passing through the regularly reflected image and the centre of the ripple system. Several every day observations may thus be understood. The method of calculation is general and applies to ripples, distributed according to any arbitrary law over a plane.