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Does the principle of optical reversibility hold for reflection as well as refraction?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
Here's the way I see it: Optical reversibility means that if a light passes through a medium with an index of refraction, n, and the light hits that medium at a certain angle, the angle of incidence, the light refracts and comes out at a different angle than the angle of incidence. In other words, if light hits a refracting medium at 10 degrees to the normal, it will refract and come out at 7 degrees to the normal. Then, if it were switched, and the light were made to hit the refracting medium at 7 degrees to the normal, then it would refract and come out at 10 degrees to the normal. This is optical reversibility as seen in refraction. In reflection, however, the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection is the same. If light hits a reflecting medium at 10 degrees, it will reflect at an angle of 10 degrees. So if the angles were switched in this case, it would do nothing, it would just hit the reflecting medium at 10 degrees and again be reflected at 10 degrees. So, does the principle of optical reversibility hold for reflection as well as refraction? It depends on if you view switching the position of the same number to be reversing anything or not.
Actually the
principle holds good for every optical system in geometric optics....
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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