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Geometric Optics

Reflection and Refraction

Total Internal Reflection

Huygen's Principle

Fermat's Principle

MU:  Optics

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Total Internal Reflection

Total internal reflection occurs when the incident medium has the higher index of refraction (e.g. incident region is glass, transmitted region is air), hence the name internal. In this case, there is no transmitted ray and the incident beam is totally (100%) reflected. For a given incident medium, this occurs for all incident angles greater than a critical angle qc given by

where n is the relative index of refraction ni/n

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