Snell's law follows from conservation of tangential wavenumber across a planar interface. If angles are measured from the interface normal, it reads n1sinθ1=n2sinθ2.
Ancestors (7)
- Wave scattering at a planar interface
- Helmholtz equation
- Partial differential equation
- Analysis
- Area of mathematics
- Mathematics
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Incoming links (44)
- Angle of refraction
- Brewster's angle
- Conserved transverse optical momentum
- Fabry–Pérot resonance spacing
- Fabry–Pérot transmission from multiple reflections
- Finite-layer model of Lippmann reflection
- Geometrical optics
- Grazing-incidence X-ray optics
- Group index from refracted-angle dispersion
- Interface phase matching
- Lensmaker's equation
- Lens (optics)
- Measuring refraction with a rectangular block
- Minimum deviation
- Normal incidence
- Optical fiber acceptance angle
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- Prism minimum-deviation index measurement
- Refraction
- Refraction at a spherical surface
- Refraction from secondary wavelets
- Refractive index
- Relative refractive index
- Reversibility of an optical ray
- Thin lens
- Wavefront
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Snell's law, also known as the law of refraction, describes how light rays change direction when they pass from one medium into another with a different refractive index.