Class 3 notes, 5 September 2006

Today the special topic was Snell's law, conductivity, and Fresnel reflection and transmission coefficients.

In brief, Snell's law refers to the behavior of waves at an interface. It is a necessary condition for waves to be continuous at interfaces, as illustrated.

Fresnel coefficients are extremely useful for calculating how much light reflects off of smooth surfaces, and is transmitted into them.
An example is window glass, or a microscope slide, or a calm water surface.

They are very useful for calculating scattering of light from particles in the geometrical optics regime where particle diameter is much larger than the wavelength.

Fresnel coefficients are calculated using electromagnetic theory.