law of refraction

American  

noun

1. the principle that for a ray, radar pulse, or the like, that is incident on the interface of two media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the velocity of the ray in the first medium to the velocity in the second medium and the incident ray, refracted ray, and normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.

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Example Sentences

In this section, we will use the law of refraction to explore the properties of lenses and how they form images.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Snell’s law, the law of refraction, is stated in equation form as n1 sin θ1 = n2 sin θ2 .

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Snell’s experiments showed that the law of refraction was obeyed and that a characteristic index of refraction n could be assigned to a given medium.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

These are the law of reflection, for situations in which light bounces off matter, and the law of refraction, for situations in which light passes through matter.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Harriot independently discovered what we now call Galileo’s law of fall, and also what we now call Snell’s law of refraction, but he never published.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton