25.1

Wave Fronts and Rays

Mirrors are usually close at hand. It is difficult, for example, to put on makeup, shave, or drive a car without them. We see images in mirrors because some of the light that strikes them is reflected into our eyes. To discuss reflection, it is necessary to introduce the concepts of a wave front and a ray of light, and we can do so by taking advantage of the familiar topic of sound waves (see Chapter 16). Both sound and light are kinds of waves. Sound is a pressure wave, whereas light is electromagnetic in nature. However, the ideas of a wave front and a ray apply to both.
Consider a small spherical object whose surface is pulsating in simple harmonic motion. A sound wave is emitted that moves spherically outward from the object at a constant speed. To represent this wave, we draw surfaces through all points of the wave that are in the same phase of motion. These surfaces of constant phase are called wave fronts. Figure 25-1 shows a hemispherical view of the wave fronts. In this view they appear as concentric spherical shells about the vibrating object. If the wave fronts are drawn through the condensations, or crests, of the sound wave, as they are in the picture, the distance between adjacent wave fronts equals the wavelength . The radial lines pointing outward from the source and perpendicular to the wave fronts are called rays. The rays point in the direction of the velocity of the wave.

Figure 25-1 A hemispherical view of a sound wave emitted by a pulsating sphere. The wave fronts are drawn through the condensations of the wave, so the distance between two successive wave fronts is the wavelength . The rays are perpendicular to the wave fronts and point in the direction of the velocity of the wave.

Figure 25-2a shows small sections of two adjacent spherical wave fronts. At large distances from the source, the wave fronts become less and less curved and approach the shape of flat surfaces, as in part b of the drawing. Waves whose wave fronts are flat surfaces (i.e., planes) are known as plane waves and are important in understanding the properties of mirrors and lenses. Since rays are perpendicular to the wave fronts, the rays for a plane wave are parallel to each other.

Figure 25-2 (a) Portions of two spherical wave fronts are shown. The rays are perpendicular to the wave fronts and diverge. (b) For a plane wave, the wave fronts are flat surfaces, and the rays are parallel to each other.

The concepts of wave fronts and rays can also be used to describe light waves. For light waves, the ray concept is particularly convenient when showing the path taken by the light. We will make frequent use of light rays, and they can be regarded essentially as narrow beams of light much like those that lasers produce.

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