- Incident light may come from the Sun, an artificial source or may have already been reflected off another surface, such as a mirror.
- When incident light strikes a surface or object, it may be absorbed, reflected, refracted, transmitted or undergo any combination of these optical effects.
- Incident light is typically represented on a ray diagram as a straight line with an arrow to indicate its direction of propagation.
- A ray diagram is a diagram that uses lines and arrows to represent the path of light, and labels to indicate the angles, directions, and other optical properties of the light.
- Incident light is an important concept in optics and is used in various fields, including photography, astronomy, and physics.
Related diagrams
Each diagram below can be viewed on its own page with a full explanation.
