Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Refract |
RefractVerb1. Subject to refraction, as of a light beam. 2. Determine the refracting power of (a lens). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "refract" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1835. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Geological | To bend or change direction. (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."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Curvature | Render curved; Adjective: flex, bend, curve, incurvate; inflect; deflect, scatter; refract (light); crook; turn, round, arch, arcuate, arch over, concamerate; bow, curl, recurve, frizzle. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Refract |
| English words defined with "refract": chromatic ♦ Refracted, Refracting, Refringency. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "refract": free space. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "refract": Refringent. (references) |
 |
| "Refract, Reflect" by Erika Thorpe Commentary: "Sunlight refracting off colored wine glasses." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The cornea must remain transparent to refract light properly, and the presence of even the tiniest blood vessels can interfere with this process. (references) | |
Instead, the cornea receives its nourishment from the tears and aqueous humor that fills the chamber behind it. The cornea must remain transparent to refract light properly, and the presence of even the tiniest blood vessels can interfere with this process. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Refract" is generally used as a lexical verb (base form) -- approximately 60.00% of the time. "Refract" is used about 5 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 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 60% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 20% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (singular) | 20% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 5 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
refract | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "refract"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | thyej (bend, break, break to pieces, cash, change, crack up, demolish, fold, fracture, hurt, mammock, maul, mill, rupture, shatter, shiver, sliver, smash, snap, Spall, split, stamp, transgress, worst, wreck), përthyej (double up, fold, inflect). (various references) | |
Arabic | كسر شعاع الضوء, إنكسر الأشعة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | пречупвам (diffract). (various references) | |
Chinese | 折射 (Refracted, Refracting, refraction, refractive). (various references) | |
Czech | lámat svìtlo. (various references) | |
Farsi | منکسرکردن (Zigzag), انکسار (Fracture, Refraction), شکستن (Break, Chop, Cleave, Crackle, Disobey, Fraction, Fracture, Infract, Infraction, Nick, Shatter, Smite, Stave, Violate), برگرداندن (Convert, Evoke, Rebut, Reflect, Regurgitate, Repay, Retort, Return, Reverse, Turquoise, Upset, Vomit). (various references) | |
Finnish | taittaa valoa (refract the light). (various references) | |
French | réfracter. (various references) | |
German | ablenken (avert, deflect, deviate, distract, divert, head off, put off, to deviate, to divert, to refract, turn away). (various references) | |
Greek | διαθλώ (diffract). (various references) | |
Hungarian | megtör (pestle, to bring to heels, to bruise, to craze, to deflect, to fault, to refract, to wake). (various references) | |
Indonesian | membiaskan. (various references) | |
Italian | rifrangere. (various references) | |
Manx | aascellaghey. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | efractray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | refratar. (various references) | |
Romanian | refracta (deflect, inflect). (various references) | |
Russian | преломлять. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prelomiti (break). (various references) | |
Spanish | refractar. (various references) | |
Swedish | brytas (break, crack, fracture), bryta (be refracted, break, break open, cut off, diverge, fold, fracture, infract, infringe, kill, mine, modify, quarry, violate). (various references) | |
Turkish | kırmak (bear down, blight, breach, break, break down, bust, chill, chop, crack, cut, dampen, discount, fracture, freeze, give offence, give offense, hurt, lacerate, offend, outrage, pique, put off, put smb.'s nose out of joint, quench, reduce, Rive, ruffle smb.'s feelings, rupture, set up, shatter, skip, snap, snap off, split, stave in, sting, touch, vanquish), kırıp yansıtmak. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | заломлювати (diffract). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "refract": refracted, refractile, refracting, refraction, refractions, refractive, refractively, refractiveness, refractivenesses, refractivities, refractivity, refractometer, refractometers, refractometric, refractometries, refractometry, refractor, refractories, refractorily, refractoriness, refractorinesses, refractors, refractory, refracts. (additional references) | |
| |
"Refract" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: defract, gebracht, reflast. (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-r-r-t" | |
-1 letter: carter, crater, farcer, frater, rafter, tracer. | |
-2 letters: after, carer, caret, carte, cater, craft, crate, facer, facet, farce, farer, racer, rater, react, recta, tarre, terra, trace. | |
-3 letters: acre, cafe, care, carr, cart, cate, face, fact, fare, fate, fear, feat, feta, frae, frat, fret, race, raft, rare, rate, rear, reft, tace, tare, tear, tref. | |
-4 letters: ace. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-f-r-r-t" | |
+1 letter: craftier, fracture, refracts. | |
+2 letters: aftercare, artificer, fractured, fractures, refracted, refractor. | |
+3 letters: aftercares, artificers, cotransfer, forecaster, fratricide, hovercraft, refractile, refracting, refraction, refractive, refractors, refractory, tradecraft, trafficker, trifurcate, watercraft. | |
+4 letters: cotransfers, forecasters, fratricides, furtherance, hovercrafts, prefectural, rarefaction, refractions, tradecrafts, traffickers, trifurcated, trifurcates, vociferator, watercrafts. | |
+5 letters: characterful, craftsperson, furtherances, handicrafter, manufacturer, postfracture, prefabricate, rarefactions, refractively, refractivity, refractories, refractorily, terrifically, transference, ultracareful, vociferators. | |
| 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. Crosswords 3. Images: Digital Art 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
