Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A law describing the refraction of a ray of light at the surface between two media, such that the product of the refractive index of the first medium and the sine of the angle of incidence equals the product of the refractive index of the second medium and the sine of the angle of refraction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun optics the
law that, for aray incident on theinterface of twomedia , thesine of theangle ofincidence times theindex of therefraction of the firstmedium is equal to the sine of the angle of refraction times the index of refraction of the second medium
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[After Willebrord Snel, van Royen (1580–1626), also called Willebrord Snellius, Dutch astronomer and mathematician who formulated the law.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
For Willebrord van Roijen Snell Dutch mathematician
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Snell's law.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.