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Geometrical optics describes propagation by rays and Snell's law, neglecting diffraction on scales much larger than the wavelength.

A light ray is a path in an approximation, not a physical thread of zero width. In a transparent, homogeneous, isotropic medium it is straight and perpendicular to a wavefront; boundaries redirect it by the law of reflection or Snell's law. The approximation is useful when the wavelength is small compared with relevant apertures, surface curvature scales, and distances over which the refractive index changes. For an illustrative wavelength of $500\mathrm{nm}$ and a $10\mathrm{mm}$ aperture, their ratio is $5\times 10^{-5}$. That small ratio supports ray tracing for image location, but does not eliminate diffraction when calculating the fine structure of a focused spot. At a wave caustic, geometrical optics can fail despite large optical elements. ^[ref].

The mechanism of refraction is a change in phase velocity. For transparent isotropic media at the chosen frequency, the refractive index iswhere $c$ is the vacuum speed of light and the angles are measured from the interface normal vector. At a stationary planar interface the frequency and tangential wavevector match across the boundary. Since the wavenumber is $k=n\omega /c$, that matching gives Snell's law. The transmitted wavelength changes while the frequency stays fixed. Here $n$ uses phase velocity, which need not equal group velocity. ^[ref]. ^[ref].

Choose model air with $n_1=1$ and model glass with $n_2=1.5$, without claiming these are exact values for every sample or wavelength. At ${\theta }_1=45^{\circ }$, Snell's law givesThe transmitted light ray bends toward the normal vector; its phase velocity is $c/1.5$, and its wavelength is two thirds of the air value. By reversibility of an optical ray, incidence from glass at $28.1255^{\circ }$ returns the outgoing air angle $45^{\circ }$.

Incidence from glass at $45^{\circ }$ is a different experiment. It would require $\sin {\theta }_2=1.5\sin 45^{\circ }\approx 1.06066$, so there is no real transmitted angle. The critical angle for total internal reflection isAbove this angle, an ideal lossless glass-air boundary produces total internal reflection. The physical optics description still permits an evanescent wave in the air, although no propagating transmitted light ray crosses the boundary. ^[ref]. ^[ref].

The usefulness of geometrical optics is that complicated instruments can be assembled from these local rules. Applying Snell's law at successive curved surfaces changes a spreading bundle into a converging one. The Fermat principle unifies the construction through stationary optical path length; stationarity does not require a global minimum. ^[ref]. Fang's MIT notes explicitly connect this principle to specular reflection, refraction, and thin lens imaging, providing a route from individual paths to complete instruments. ^[ref].

A gravity-capillary wave has restoring contributions from both gravity and surface tension. Consider an initially resting, horizontally unbounded liquid layer of constant depth $h$, with uniform mass density $\rho$, incompressible flow, inviscid flow and irrotational flow. The upper gas exerts constant pressure and has negligible inertia. Assume a clean interface with constant surface tension $\gamma$: no surfactant stresses, imposed current or wind. The wave amplitude $a$ must satisfy $ka\ll 1$ and $a\ll h$, so linearized boundary conditions apply. Deep water means $kh\gg 1$, rather than a particular depth in metres. ^[ref]

Let $z=0$ be the undisturbed free surface, with liquid below it. Potential flow gives a velocity potential $\varphi$ with $\mathbf{u}=\nabla \varphi$, and incompressible flow gives the Laplace equation. The linearized kinematic boundary condition for a free-surface graph and the Unsteady Bernoulli equation, including gravity and the Young–Laplace equation, giveHere $\eta (x,t)$ is the interface displacement; the signed small-slope pressure jump is $p_{\mathrm{liquid}}-p_{\mathrm{gas}}=-\gamma {\eta }_{xx}$. A wave crest has ${\eta }_{xx}<0$, so its capillary pressure is positive. Choose a right-travelling Fourier mode of positive wavenumber $k$ and angular frequency $\omega$:The factor $e^{kz}$ decays into the deep liquid, satisfies the Laplace equation, and makes ${\varphi }_z={\eta }_t$ at $z=0$. Substituting in the dynamic boundary condition leavesThis derivation displays the two restoring contributions with the same sign. Dimensional analysis also checks the result: $\gamma /\rho$ has units ${\mathrm{m}}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-2}$, so both $gk$ and $(\gamma /\rho )k^3$ have units ${\mathrm{s}}^{-2}$. ^[ref]

At finite depth, a flat impermeable bottom at $z=-h$ requires ${\varphi }_z=0$. Replacing $e^{kz}$ by the normalized vertical factor $\cosh (k(z+h))/\cosh (kh)$ makes the surface ratio ${\varphi }_z/\varphi =k\tanh (kh)$. Eliminating the mode amplitudes then givesThus the same model supplies its own depth check: use the deep-water formula only when $\tanh (kh)$ is sufficiently close to one for the required accuracy. For example, $kh=3$ reduces $\omega$ by about $0.248\%$ relative to deep water, while $kh=1$ reduces it by about $12.7\%$. These percentages are calculations from this factor. ^[ref]

In deep water the phase velocity magnitude follows a wave crest, while the group velocity magnitude follows the wave envelope of a narrow wave packet. Differentiating the positive-frequency dispersion relation givesFor $k{\ell }_c\ll 1$, the surface gravity wave limit has $c_g\simeq c_p/2$. For $k{\ell }_c\gg 1$, the deep-water capillary-wave dispersion relation has $c_g\simeq 3c_p/2$: a wave crest slips backward relative to the faster wave envelope, even while both advance. Neither speed is the oscillating fluid element's own velocity. ^[ref]

There is a particularly neat coincidence at the crossover. Differentiate $c_p^2=g/k+\gamma k/\rho$: its unique minimum is at $k_c=\sqrt{\rho g/\gamma }=1/{\ell }_c$, exactly where the restoring terms are equal. ThereforeFor the stipulated parameters in capillary length, the minimum is $0.231\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. At $\lambda =3\mathrm{mm}$, direct substitution gives $f=\omega /(2\pi )\simeq 131\mathrm{Hz}$, $c_p\simeq 0.394\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and $c_g\simeq 0.580\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. This short wavelength is capillary dominated, but its group velocity is still slightly below the pure-capillary ratio $3c_p/2$ because gravity has not vanished.

At an isolated interface with continuous base velocity, a stable density drop $\Delta \rho /2$ and a jump $[U^{\prime }]$ of base shear, decaying disturbances $w\propto e^{-k|z-z_i|}$ obey the displayed dispersion relation. It follows by inserting their derivative jump $[w^{\prime }]=-2kw$ into the jump conditions for stratified inviscid shear flow. Both the density jump and the vorticity jump contribute to the intrinsic phase velocity $c-U_i$.

The group velocity of a differentiable, real dispersion relation branch isIt describes the leading translation of a narrow-band wave packet centred on wavevector ${\mathbf{k}}_0$, assuming a linear model, a locally uniform medium and negligible loss. Narrow-band means that the appreciably excited wavevectors occupy a small neighbourhood on which one smooth branch can be linearized. Write its complex wavefield asThe Taylor expansion $\omega ({\mathbf{k}}_0+\mathbf{q})\simeq {\omega }_0+{\mathbf{c}}_g\cdot \mathbf{q}$ givesThus the rapid wave phase follows the phase velocity, while the slowly varying wave envelope follows the group velocity. This Fourier analysis argument is an outline of the approximation, rather than a statement that every wave packet translates rigidly forever. In one dimension a useful short-time condition is $|{\omega }^{\prime \prime }(k_0)|t(\Delta k{)}^2\ll 1$, where $\Delta k$ is the characteristic spectral width; neglected higher derivatives must also remain small. Curvature of the dispersion relation eventually changes the wave envelope.^[ref]

Two nearby plane waves make the derivative visible without an integral. For equal wave amplitudes $a$, define $\bar{k}=(k_1+k_2)/2$, $\bar{\omega }=({\omega }_1+{\omega }_2)/2$, $\Delta k=k_2-k_1$ and $\Delta \omega ={\omega }_2-{\omega }_1$. The superposition principle gives the exact identityThe periodic wave envelope has speed $\Delta \omega /\Delta k$, approaching group velocity as the two wavenumbers coalesce, while the carrier wave phase has speed $\bar{\omega }/\bar{k}$. Two tones alone form an infinite beat train, not a localized wave packet. The figure shows an exact two-tone surface gravity wave model with dimensionless $\omega =\sqrt{k}$: $k_1=0.9$, $k_2=1.1$. Its carrier phase velocity is approximately $0.99875$, its finite-difference envelope velocity approximately $0.50063$, and ${\omega }^{\prime }(1)=0.5$ is the limiting group velocity. The marked carrier phase line need not coincide exactly with a maximum of the full modulated wave.

The deep-water surface gravity wave therefore has $c_g=c_p/2$, whereas the deep-water capillary wave limit has $c_g=3c_p/2$: crests can drift either forward or backward relative to a wave envelope. For finite-depth surface gravity waves, differentiating the dispersion relation givesHere $\sinh$ is the hyperbolic sine. The shallow-water limit has $c_g\simeq c_p\simeq \sqrt{gh}$; the deep-water limit has $c_g\simeq c_p/2$.^[ref]

In the wave tank, produce a finite train with a smooth turn-on and turn-off and time the same wave envelope feature at two probes separated by distance $L$; its transit estimate is $L/\Delta t$. Independently follow wave crests through that train. Techet's 2003 lab asks students to observe a deep-water train's foremost crest disappearing as the group moves forward, and to compare deep- and shallow-water cases. The interpretation is that a wave crest overtakes the slower wave envelope, dwindling at its front while other crests become visible at its rear. This is a qualitative expected observation in the teaching protocol, not a published set of measured curves.^[ref]

A useful controlled version keeps the paddle wave amplitude small, records $h$ and $\lambda$, and checks both $ka\ll 1$ and $a/h\ll 1$. Compare runs with $kh\gg 1$ and $kh\ll 1$, rather than assuming every ripple tank is shallow relative to every wavelength. Increase train duration at fixed central frequency to narrow its spectrum, and check that the envelope transit estimate stabilizes. Calibrate both probes, sample fast enough to resolve the carrier, and compare records before reflected waves return; an absorbing beach reduces this contamination. A current changes laboratory velocities, large wave amplitudes introduce nonlinear effects, and very short wavelengths require surface tension. Strong damping or noticeable reshaping makes the chosen threshold or peak an unreliable marker of simple group velocity. These are proposed controls and model limits, not claims that the cited lab measured every correction.

Three velocities should consequently be kept separate. The group velocity predicts narrow-band wave envelope motion. An energy-transport velocity is energy flux divided by energy density, using the appropriate time average; it agrees with group velocity in standard lossless linear wave models when all stored energy is included.^[ref] A signal-front velocity concerns the earliest response to a new disturbance and requires a causal model over its full spectrum. A strictly band-limited wave packet has no sharply bounded onset, and a mathematical two-tone envelope cannot test front arrival. In strongly absorbing or broadband propagation, a single group velocity need not describe the observed peak, energy transport, or first detectable response. A complex $\omega$ or $k$ also prevents interpreting its derivative as an ordinary real transport velocity without further analysis.

In particular, an unusually large or negative group velocity from pulse reshaping does not establish superluminal information transmission. For the causal dielectric model analysed by Fitzpatrick, the field ahead of the front vanishes for $t<x/c$, even when its phase velocity exceeds the vacuum speed of light $c$. That result concerns the electromagnetic model's causality; the ideal water-wave diagrams above contain no relativistic signal-front claim.^[ref]

Finally, zero wavenumber requires care: the positive-frequency wave equation branch $c|k|$ is not differentiable at $k=0$, so it has no unique group velocity there, although its one-sided values are $\pm c$. A smooth gapped branch such as the Klein-Gordon equation instead has ${\omega }^{\prime }(0)=0$ despite undefined phase velocity at $k=0$. The same signed branch must be used in both derivatives and ratios; a negative group velocity means an envelope moving in the negative coordinate direction, not a negative elapsed time. The practical value of group velocity is precisely this translation between a local slope on a dispersion diagram and a measurable packet transit, with its assumptions made explicit.

The Gaussian envelope in a Klein-Gordon medium supplies a quantitative next step: the first derivative translates the wave envelope, the second derivative spreads it, and higher derivatives limit that approximation. At finite spectral width, a peak's measured speed need not equal the group velocity at the central wavenumber. Neither a peak nor a fixed fraction of its height generally identifies front velocity.

The group velocity of a flexural-gravity wave diverges on the long-wave gravity branch and on the short-wave bending branch, and therefore has a positive minimum between them when the bending stiffness is positive. This minimum bounds the propagation speed of narrow wave packets within the ideal model. It does not by itself determine a wind-generation threshold: steady forcing requires matching phase velocity, while dissipation and coupling determine growth.

In his 1888 reflection experiments, Heinrich Hertz excited a straight conductor with a central spark gap driven by an induction coil. The receiver was a wire circle of $35\mathrm{cm}$ radius with an adjustable small spark gap; tiny sparks were observed in darkness. There was no connecting transmission wire. ^[ref]

He removed hanging metal fixtures, installed a $4\mathrm{m}$ by $2\mathrm{m}$ zinc reflecting sheet, and moved and rotated the receiver. Spark strength alternated with position and gap orientation, supporting specular reflection and wave interference. He checked observations from farther away because the observer's body perturbed the response. Changing oscillator dimensions changed the spatial pattern. ^[ref]

These tests supported propagating electromagnetic waves, rather than mere detection of nearby induction. They did not establish unlimited reception distance. His wire-versus-air wave interference experiment addressed finite velocity; he later judged its quantitative velocity comparison doubtful because of room effects. ^[ref]

The physical inference combines transmission with a spatially structured response to a reflected disturbance. In an ideal monochromatic incident-and-reflected model, standing wave nodes are separated by $\lambda /2$; combining a reliable wavelength with independently known frequency gives phase velocity $v=\nu \lambda$. A spark is a threshold event, however: its presence or length is not a calibrated wave intensity or a direct arrival-time measurement. The actual loop also responds to its orientation and finite size, so the simple standing-wave model is an explanation of the test's logic, rather than a reconstruction of Hertz's measured points. Poynting theorem explains how source energy can reach and drive the receiver's discharge.

For phase $kx+mz-\omega t$ with $k\ne 0$, hold $z$ fixed: a contour of constant wave phase advances in $x$ at $\omega /k$. This is the speed at which a tilted wavefront crosses a horizontal line. It differs from the horizontal component of the vector phase velocity, $\omega k/(k^2+m^2)$, which is defined along the wavevector.

An interfacial gravity wave is a displacement of an interface between two fluids of different mass density, restored by buoyancy when the denser fluid is below. For two deep layers in the Boussinesq approximation, density difference $\delta \rho$ and horizontal wavenumber $k$ give intrinsic squared phase velocity $g\delta \rho /(2{\rho }_{0}k)$. Background flow shifts the laboratory phase velocity by its local speed.

For a slowly switched-on plane internal gravity wave in the half-space $z>0$, the method of multiple scales gives transport of its amplitude at the vertical group velocity. For ${\omega }^2=N^2{k}^2/(k^2+m^2)$, $c_{gz}=-\omega m/(k^2+m^2)$. Initially undisturbed fluid and forcing at the bottom require $c_{gz}>0$. The outgoing radiation condition therefore selects $m<0$ when $\omega >0$, although the vertical phase velocity is downward.

For a propagating, non-cutoff two-dimensional internal gravity wave proportional to $e^{i(kx+mz-\omega t)}$, incompressibility gives $U=-mW/k$. Thus the oscillatory velocity field is perpendicular to the wavevector and parallel to the group velocity, whereas the phase velocity is parallel to the wavevector.

A right-going, boundary-forced internal gravity wave has horizontal momentum per unit inertial density $P=(k/\omega )\overline{E}$. Its envelope-induced Eulerian mean acceleration is ${\overline{u}}_t=P_t$ to leading slow order. In the frame moving at horizontal phase velocity $c=\omega /k$, the change of mean kinetic energy relative to the initial current $-c$ is $-{\rho }_{0}c\int \overline{u}dz$ at quadratic wave order. Its time derivative is minus the boundary work $\overline{W}={\rho }_{0}d\int \overline{E}dz/dt$. The lab-frame mean kinetic energy alone is fourth order in wave amplitude; retaining the moving-frame cross term is essential.

Two deep layers of incompressible flow with upper mass density ${\rho }_1$, lower mass density ${\rho }_2$, and tangential velocities $U_1,U_2$ have this dispersion relation when surface tension is absent. Decaying velocity potentials and the linearized kinematic boundary condition determine their amplitudes; the dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface gives the displayed relation. For $k>0$ the squared departure of the phase velocity $c$ from the density-weighted mean velocity is $g({\rho }_2-{\rho }_1)/[k({\rho }_1+{\rho }_2)]-{\rho }_1{\rho }_2(U_1-U_2{)}^2/({\rho }_1+{\rho }_2{)}^2$. A negative value gives Kelvin-Helmholtz instability despite stable density stratification.

A useful stipulated dispersive medium obeys the Klein-Gordon equation $u_{tt}-c^2{u}_{xx}+{\omega }_0^{2}u=0$, with $c>0$ and ${\omega }_0>0$. Its positive-angular frequency dispersion relation isHere ${\omega }_0$ is the gap at zero wavenumber, not the central angular frequency ${\omega }_c=\omega (k_0)$ of a wave packet; the parameter in the preceding formula is $A={\omega }_0/c$. For $k>0$, the phase velocity satisfies $v_p>c$, the group velocity satisfies $0<v_g<c$, and $v_p{v}_g=c^2$. In this stipulated medium $c$ is the limiting propagation speed of the model; it need not mean the vacuum speed of light. The same square-root dispersion relation appears in waveguide phase and group velocities, with a waveguide cutoff frequency playing the role of ${\omega }_0$.^[ref]

For the original dimensionless choice $c={\omega }_0=k_0=1$, a carrier wave has phase velocity $v_p=\sqrt{2}$, while a narrow wave packet has leading group velocity $v_g=1/\sqrt{2}$. After time $t=8$, the carrier's zero-wave phase reference has moved to $x=8\sqrt{2}\simeq 11.31$, whereas the leading wave envelope centre is at $x=8/\sqrt{2}\simeq 5.66$. A carrier wave crest therefore moves through the wave envelope; it does not carry an identifiable piece of the envelope with it.

The origin-to-curve secant on the dispersion diagram gives phase velocity, while its local tangent gives group velocity. As $k\to 0^{+}$, $v_p\to \infty$ and $v_g\to 0$; at $k=0$ the phase velocity itself is undefined. As $k\to \infty$, both approach $c$, from opposite sides. On the same positive-angular frequency branch with $k<0$, both signed velocities are negative and their product remains $c^2$. These conventions distinguish direction from phase speed. Reversing both $k$ and $\omega$ represents the same real plane wave; changing just one sign changes its direction.

For an original finite-bandwidth check, take equal-amplitude plane waves at $k_1=0.8$ and $k_2=1.2$, still with $c={\omega }_0=1$. The exact two-tone wave envelope speed iswhile its carrier wave has phase velocity $(\sqrt{1+0.8^2}+\sqrt{1+1.2^2})/2\simeq 1.421337$. Their product is exactly $1$: rationalizing the difference gives $v_{\mathrm{beat}}=2/({\omega }_1+{\omega }_2)$. Nevertheless $v_{\mathrm{beat}}\ne {\omega }^{\prime }(1)$; the derivative describes the limit of vanishing separation, not an arbitrary pair of tones. The two-tone wave envelope repeats indefinitely, so it has no isolated first arrival and cannot measure front velocity.