ordinary ray

American  

noun

1. Optics, Crystallography. the part of a doubly refracted ray whose velocity within a crystal is the same in any direction.

---

ordinary ray British  

noun

1. the plane-polarized ray of light that obeys the laws of refraction in a doubly-refracting crystal Compare double refraction extraordinary ray

---

Example Sentences

One behaves normally and is called the ordinary ray, whereas the other does not obey Snell’s law and is called the extraordinary ray.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

The ordinary ray behaves as expected, but the extraordinary ray does not obey Snell’s law.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

One of them obeys the ordinary law of refraction discovered by Snell, and is, therefore, called the ordinary ray: its index of refraction is 1.654.

From Six Lectures on Light Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 by Tyndall, John

Optically, calcite is uniaxial with negative bi-refringence, the index of refraction for the ordinary ray being greater than for the extraordinary ray; for sodium-light the former is 1.6585 and the latter 1.4862.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various

If the magnetic field associated with an S-Region extends into the high solar corona through which the rays pass, then the sense of rotation corresponds to the ordinary ray of the magneto-ionic theory.

From Disturbing Sun by Richardson, Robert S. (Robert Shirley)