Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015-resit/10/d/solution

A ray leaving focus and reaching a boundary point has incoming unit direction . By the law of reflection, its normal component reverses and its tangential component stays fixed. The result just derived shows that the reflected direction is , pointing exactly from to focus . Thus all such in-plane rays from one focus converge to the other after one reflection, in the ideal geometrical optics model.
Moreover, every reflected path has the same total length . In a uniform medium their propagation times are equal as well, so different reflection points do not introduce a geometrical path-length spread. Finite wavelength, surface errors and incomplete reflecting coverage limit a real focus; the ideal argument concerns rays in the plane of the ellipse. It does not assert that an arbitrary three-dimensional surface with only one elliptical section focuses every out-of-plane ray.

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