Reflection & Refraction
2 guided lessons · 18 checks · 3. Waves → Reflection & Refraction
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Reflection & the law of reflection
Reflection happens when a wave meets the boundary between two media and stays in the one it came from, like a tree mirrored in still water. The law that governs it is symmetrical: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, both measured from the normal, the line at right angles to the boundary.
What you know already
Reflection and refraction are the two doors every wave meets at a boundary: one turns it back, the other bends it onward. You can already name both behaviours for light and sound; this lesson adds the measuring law for reflection and the drawing rules that turn those laws into full-mark ray diagrams.
Key points of understanding
- All waves, transverse or longitudinal, can be reflected and refracted.
- Reflection keeps the wave in its original medium at the boundary.
- The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.
- Both angles are measured between the ray and the normal.
- The normal is the line at ninety degrees to the boundary surface.
An identical image of the tree is seen in the water due to reflection
Ray diagram of the reflection of a wave in a mirror
The angle of incidence and angle of reflection are equal in the law of reflection
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1.Reflection & the law of reflection
Reflection happens when a wave meets the boundary between two media and stays in the one it came from, like a tree mirrored in still water. The law that governs it is symmetrical: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, both measured from the normal, the line at right angles to the boundary.
An identical image of the tree is seen in the water due to reflection
Ray diagram of the reflection of a wave in a mirror
Guided content from the SME authoring corpus — note rn_35snKWs7CjH7vshw, pinned at dad406f1ecd8 · promoted SyllabAI/syllabai-resources b3caaaa90c5e
