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refraction
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- Refraction - n. - The act of refracting, or the state of being refracted.
- Refraction - n. - The change in the direction of ray of light, heat, or the like, when it enters obliquely a medium of a different density from that through which it has previously moved.
- Refraction - n. - The change in the direction of a ray of light, and, consequently, in the apparent position of a heavenly body from which it emanates, arising from its passage through the earth's atmosphere; -- hence distinguished as atmospheric refraction, or astronomical refraction.
- Refraction - n. - The correction which is to be deducted from the apparent altitude of a heavenly body on account of atmospheric refraction, in order to obtain the true altitude.
- Catadioptrical - a. - Pertaining to, produced by, or involving, both the reflection and refraction of light; as, a catadioptric light.
- Anaclastics - n. - That part of optics which treats of the refraction of light; -- commonly called dioptrics.
- Anaclastic - a. - Produced by the refraction of light, as seen through water; as, anaclastic curves.
- Rainbow - n. - A bow or arch exhibiting, in concentric bands, the several colors of the spectrum, and formed in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in drops of falling rain.
- Aphakia - n. - An anomalous state of refraction caused by the absence of the crystalline lens, as after operations for cataract. The remedy is the use of powerful convex lenses.
- Dioptrical - a. - Of or pertaining to dioptrics; assisting vision by means of the refraction of light; refractive; as, the dioptric system; a dioptric glass or telescope.
- Refractometer - n. - A contrivance for exhibiting and measuring the refraction of light.
- Spectrum - n. - The several colored and other rays of which light is composed, separated by the refraction of a prism or other means, and observed or studied either as spread out on a screen, by direct vision, by photography, or otherwise. See Illust. of Light, and Spectroscope.
- Halo - n. - A luminous circle, usually prismatically colored, round the sun or moon, and supposed to be caused by the refraction of light through crystals of ice in the atmosphere. Connected with halos there are often white bands, crosses, or arches, resulting from the same atmospheric conditions.
- Dioptrics - n. - The science of the refraction of light; that part of geometrical optics which treats of the laws of the refraction of light in passing from one medium into another, or through different mediums, as air, water, or glass, and esp. through different lenses; -- distinguished from catoptrics, which refers to reflected light.
- Refractor - n. - A refracting telescope, in which the image to be viewed is formed by the refraction of light in passing through a convex lens.
- Stereoscope - n. - An optical instrument for giving to pictures the appearance of solid forms, as seen in nature. It combines in one, through a bending of the rays of light, two pictures, taken for the purpose from points of view a little way apart. It is furnished with two eyeglasses, and by refraction or reflection the pictures are superimposed, so as to appear as one to the observer.