law of reflection

American  

noun

1. the principle that when a ray of light, radar pulse, or the like, is reflected from a smooth surface the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, and the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.

---

Usage

What is the law of reflection? While it may sound like a form of meditation, the law of reflection is a principle about what light does when it hits a perfectly smooth surface, like a mirror.The law states that light will bounce off such a surface at the exact same angle it hit that surface at.

Example Sentences

By contrast, the ancients had known, by our reckoning, only four physical laws: the law of the lever, the optical law of reflection, the law of buoyancy and the parallelogram law of velocities.16 Or, rather, the ancients had known four principles that we call laws.

From Literature

Grosseteste’s own practice demonstrates a remarkable indifference to experimental procedure; thus he formulated a general principle of refraction, but he simply assumed that it must, like the law of reflection, involve equal angles, and never conducted the elementary tests which would have shown that this assumption was misplaced.

From Literature

There's a principle in physics known as the law of reflection.

From Golf Digest

The behavior of the light as it reflects would follow a predictable "law" known as the "law of reflection."

From Golf Digest

The law of reflection states that when a ray of light reflects off a surface, the angle of incidence or the angle of approach so to speak is equal to the angle of reflection.

From Golf Digest