Reflection

• All Waves can be absorbed, transmitted or reflected
• When we arrive at a boundary between two different materials, three things can happen:

  • The waves are absorbed by the material the wave is trying to cross into-this transfers energy to the materials energy stores (how microwaves work)
  • The waves are transmitted-the way to carry on travelling through the new material. This often leads to refraction.
  • The Waves are reflected
• angle of incidence = angle of reflection
• The angle of incident is the angle between the incoming wave and the normal. The angle of reflection is the angle between the reflected wave and the normal. The normal is an imaginary line that’s perpendicular to the surface at the point of incident. The normal is usually shown as a dotted line.
• Reflection can be speculated or diffuse


  Waves are reflected at different boundaries in different ways. Specular reflection happens when a wave is reflected in a single direction by smooth surface (light being reflected by a mirror). Diffuse reflection is when wavers reflected by a rough surface and reflected scattered and lots of different directions (a piece of paper).
• Why does diffuse reflection happen?


  The normal is different to each incoming wave which means that the angle of incidents is different for each ray. The rule of angle of incidents = angle of reflection still applies. went like this reflected by a rough surface, the surface is Matt and you don’t get to clear reflection of objects.