Re: optics
- From: NoEinstein <noeinstein@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:16:05 -0800 (PST)
On Feb 25, 11:01 pm, STUARTe <jabluvs...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If you drive at night with a dirty windshield you will notice the
appearance of what looks like a beam of light emanating from bright
lights. I noticed that these beams appear to be converging on my left
kneecap. can someone explain this phenomenon? my windshield is curved.
(convex)
Dear STUARTe: Light can be bent by lenses, but it can also be bent by
passing close to any object, such as the edges of a pinhole. The
closer a light ray comes to the edges, the further it will be bent.
This 'unrealized' effect is why early optical experiments suggested
that light must be... waves, because the light was moving beyond the
"line-of-sight" from the source to the vertical slits.
Actually, light is not waves of any kind! The reason you see those
glaring streaks on your windshield is that every speck of dirt and
every minor scratch is bending the light. But the curvature of your
windshield causes you to see what looks like a ray, or rays. If your
windshield were perfectly flat, and equally smudged, you would see a
halo of light around each headlight on an approaching car. Hope this
explanation answers your question. -- NoEinstein --
.
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