total internal reflection

British

noun

physics the complete reflection of a light ray at the boundary of two media, when the ray is in the medium with greater refractive index

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This is analogous to so-called total internal reflection of light rays.

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2023

The same phenomenon of “broken” total internal reflection, but with light rays instead of water waves, is used in certain types of touch screen displays.

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2023

Figure 25.17 These binoculars employ corner reflectors with total internal reflection to get light to the observer’s eyes.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Figure 25.54 A light ray inside a liquid strikes the surface at the critical angle and undergoes total internal reflection.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

I will place my lenses there at the chink through which you were gazing and bring the image down into my camera obscura by a prism arranged for total internal reflection.

From The Darrow Enigma by Severy, Melvin Linwood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023