| Abstract from DBPedia | In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other waves such as sound waves and water waves also experience refraction. How much a wave is refracted is determined by the change in wave speed and the initial direction of wave propagation relative to the direction of change in speed. For light, refraction follows Snell's law, which states that, for a given pair of media, the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence θ1 and angle of refraction θ2 is equal to the ratio of phase velocities (v1 / v2) in the two media, or equivalently, to the refractive indices (n2 / n1) of the two media. Optical prisms and lenses use refraction to redirect light, as does the human eye. The refractive index of materials varies with the wavelength of light, and thus the angle of the refraction also varies correspondingly. This is called dispersion and causes prisms and rainbows to divide white light into its constituent spectral colors.屈折（くっせつ、英: refraction）とは、界面において、波（波動）が進行方向を変えることである。異なる媒質を通るときに、波の周波数が変わらずに進む速度が変わるため進行方向が変わる（エネルギー保存の法則や運動量保存の法則による）。 光の屈折がもっとも身近な例であるが、例えば音波や水の波動も屈折する。波が進行方向を変える度合いとしてはホイヘンスの原理を使ったスネルの法則が成り立つ。部分的に反射する振る舞いはフレネルの式で表される。なぜ光が屈折するかについては、量子力学的にファインマンの経路積分によって説明される。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Refraction) |
