Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Refraction |
RefractionNoun1. The change in direction of a propagating wave (light or sound) when passing from one medium to another. 2. The amount by which a propagating wave is bent. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "refraction" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Aerospace | The process in which the direction of energy propagation is changed as the result of a change in density within the propagating medium, or as the energy passes through the interface representing a density discontinuity between two media. In the first instance the rays undergo a smooth bending over a finite distance. In the second case the index of refraction changes through an interfacial layer that is thin compared to the wavelength of the radiation; thus, the refraction is abrupt, essentially discontinuous. See atmospheric refraction. Compare reflection, diffraction, scattering. (references) |
Electrical Engineering | A change in the direction of propagation of radiation determined by change in the velocity of propagation in passing through an optically non-homogeneous medium, or in passing from one medium to another. Source: European Union. (references) |
Energy | The change in direction of a ray of light when it passes through one media to another with differing optical densities. (references) |
Environment | The change of direction of a ray of light in passing obliquely from one medium into another in which the speed of propagation differs. (references) |
Geological | (1) The deflection, or bending, of the ray path of a seismic wave caused by its passage from one material to another having different elastic properties. (2) Bending of a tsunami wave front owing to variations in the water depth along a coastline. (references) |
Health | A test to determine the best eyeglasses or contact lenses to correct a refractive error (myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism). (references) |
Mining | The deflection of a ray of light or of an energy wave (such as a seismic wave) due to its passage from one medium to another of differing density,which changes its velocity. CF:reflection; diffraction. (references) |
Physics | A phenomenon by which the direction of propagation of a sound wave is changed due to spatial variation in the speed of sound. Source: European Union. (references) |
Solar | The bending of electromagnetic radiation by its passage through a medium of a high refractive index. Light is refracted by passing through a lens, water, or the atmosphere. (references) |
Space | The deflection or bending of electromagnetic waves when they pass from one kind of transparent medium into another. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in velocity. It happens when waves travel from a medium with a given refractive index to a medium with another. At the boundary between the media the wave changes direction, its wavelength increases or decreases but frequency remains constant. For example, a light ray will refract as it passes through glass; understanding of this concept led to the invention of the refracting telescope.
Water waves refracting in a Ripple tank In the diagram on the right, ripples travel from the right and pass over a shallower region inclined at an angle to the wavefront. The waves travel more slowly in the shallower water, so the wavelength decreases and the wave bends at the boundary. The dotted line represents the normal to the boundary. The dashed line represents the original direction of the waves. The phenomenon explains why waves on a shoreline never hit the shoreline at an angle. Whichever direction the waves travel in in deep water, they always refract towards the normal as they enter the shallower water near the beach.
An example of this is looking into a bowl of water. Air has a refractive index of just over 1, and water has a refractive index of about 1.3. If you look at a straight object, such as a ruler, which is placed at a slant, partially in the water, the object appears to bend at the water's surface. This is due to the light rays from the object being bent as they move from the water to the air.This causes water to appear shallower than it really is.
In the diagram the dark rectangle represents the actual position of a pencil sitting in a bowl of water. The light rectangle represents the apparent position of the pencil. Notice that the end (X) looks like it is at (Y), a position that is considerably shallower than (X).
Refraction is also responsible for rainbows and for splitting up of white light into a rainbow-spectrum as it passes through a glass prism. Glass has a higher refractive index than air and the different frequencies of light travel at different speeds (dispersion), causing them to be refracted at different angles. The different frequencies correspond to different colours observed.
The amount that the light bends during refraction is calculated using Snell's law.
Recently some materials have been created which have a negative index of refraction
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Refraction."
Synonyms: RefractionSynonyms: deflection (n), deflexion (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deviation | Noun: deviation; swerving; Verb: obliquation, warp, refraction; flection, flexion; sweep; deflection, deflexure; declination. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Strange wave refraction pattern apparent in aerial photograph as swells encounter large merchant vessel. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Point Udall, the easternmost point of U. S. territory in the Western Hemisphere. Note wave refraction patterns in the shallow water to the left of the point. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Figure 49. Fery refractometer, an instrument first suggested by Julius Hilgard of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey to measure the density of sea water by relating the index of refraction of a liquid to its density. The instrument shown was developed by the Frenchman Charles Fery in 1891. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |  | Diagrams of optical phenomena, including the rainbow, the double Icelandic spar, and prism refraction. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Refraction 2" by Marcel Hol Commentary: "Refracted sunlight shining through a glass (creating a 'shadow of light')." | "Loupe" by Alan Cameron Commentary: "Style shot of printers loupe with reflection & refraction." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | It works in much the same way that the lens of a camera focuses light to create an image on film. The bending and focusing of light is also known as refraction. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Refraction" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Refraction" is used about 45 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 45 | 50,900 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "refraction": angel of refraction ♦ Angle of refraction ♦ coastal refraction ♦ color refraction ♦ colour refraction ♦ Conical refraction ♦ Differential refraction ♦ Double refraction ♦ Double refraction micrometer ♦ index of refraction ♦ plane of refraction ♦ refraction circle ♦ refraction coefficient ♦ refraction hyperopia ♦ refraction of latitude ♦ Terrestrial refraction. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "refraction"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | refrakcion, thyerje (break, breakage, breaking, breakup, deflection, demolition, fracture, milling, roughness, rupture, split, stamping, transgression, violation), përthyerje. (various references) | |
Arabic | إنكسار للضوء, إنحراف الأشعة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | рефракция, пречупване (deflection, deflexion). (various references) | |
Chinese | 折射 . (various references) | |
Czech | lom svìtla. (various references) | |
Danish | refraktion (aberration), brydning (aberration, coal-getting, crushing, diffraction, fragmentation, getting, grinding, stoping, winning, work). (various references) | |
Dutch | refractie (aberration), breking (aberration, diffraction). (various references) | |
Farsi | تخفیف (Discount, Rebate, Relaxation, Remission, Slake), تجزیه (Analysis, Anatomy, Breakup, Dissection, Resolution, Severance), انکسار (Fracture, Refract), انحراف (Corruption, Deflexion, Departure, Detour, Deviance, Digression, Inclination, Invert, Leeway, Offset, Perversion, Skew, Slope, Veer, Yaw), شکست (Break, Breakage, Fracture, Reverse, Setback, Washout). (various references) | |
Finnish | taittuminen. (various references) | |
French | réfraction. (various references) | |
German | Brechung (breaking, diffraction, mutation, rebounding), Refraktion (aberration), Lichtbrechung. (various references) | |
Greek | διάθλαση (diffraction). (various references) | |
Hungarian | sugártörés, fénytörés (diffraction). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pembiasan, biasan, bias (ray). (various references) | |
Italian | rifrazione (aberration, reflectivity). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 屈折 (bending, indentation). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | くっせつ (bending, indentation). (various references) | |
Manx | aascellaght. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | efractionray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | refracção acústica, refracção (aberration), refração, aberração (aberrance, aberrancy, aberrations, freak, warp). (various references) | |
Romanian | refracţie. (various references) | |
Russian | преломление (deflexion). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | refrakcija, prelamanje (diffraction). (various references) | |
Spanish | refracción (aberration). (various references) | |
Swedish | refraktion. (various references) | |
Turkish | refraksiyon, kırılma (break, breakage, breaking, fracture, offence, offense, refracting, refractive, rupture, smash, split), ışığı kırma gücü. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | рефракція, заломлення (deflection). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | độ khúc xạ. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | refractarius. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | refractionem. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "refraction": refractions. (additional references) | |
| |
"Refraction" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: defraction, effraction, refacction. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-f-i-n-o-r-r-t" | |
-1 letter: fornicate. | |
-2 letters: anoretic, anterior, carrotin, craftier, creation, fraction, frontier, infector, reaction, tricorne. | |
-3 letters: aconite, carotin, carrion, ceratin, certain, cirrate, coinfer, cointer, conifer, cornier, creatin, creator, crofter, enactor, erotica, erratic, faction, fainter, fancier, foreran, frantic, fronter, infarct, infract, noticer, reactor, refract, refrain, refront, retrain, rotifer, tacrine, terrain, trainer, tricorn. | |
-4 letters: acetin, action, aeonic, aortic, aroint. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-f-i-n-o-r-r-t" | |
+1 letter: rarefaction, refractions. | |
+2 letters: rarefactions. | |
+3 letters: confraternity, ferromagnetic, rarefactional. | |
+4 letters: cotransferring, prefabrication, reconfirmation, refractoriness. | |
+5 letters: antiforeclosure, confraternities, prefabrications, recertification, reconfiguration, reconfirmations, refortification. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
