glancing angle

American  

noun

1. the angle between a ray incident on a plane surface and the surface, as of a beam of electrons incident on a crystal; the complement of the angle of incidence.

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Example Sentences

If you send a wave at this wall at a glancing angle, it will always bounce back from the wall.

From Scientific American

Dating from about 2.5 to 1.7 million years ago, these ‘Oldowan’ stone tools were thought to have been made by striking a hammer stone against an anvil at a glancing angle, causing sharp flakes to break off from the hammer.

From Nature

“At noontime, if you look at a glancing angle, you can see what seems to be haze,” Russell says.

From Nature

If such a Bessel beam were to encounter an object not head-on but at a glancing angle, the backward force can be stimulated.

From BBC