When light hits an object, some of it penetrates the object while the rest is reflected.
光は何か物体に当たると一部は中に進んで行き、残りは反射します。
Reflection
反射
When light is reflected, the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection, i.e., θ1 and θ2 in the drawing below, are equal.
光が反射するときには入射角と反射角、つまり下の絵でθ1とθ2が等しくなります。
To express this with vectors, let a vectori represent the direction of the original light and vecn represent the direction of the surface of the object (normal). The direction of the reflected light r can be expressed by the following equation.
Let’s break it down on a drawing. You can subtract the projection of i onto n (a) twice from the original light vector i to obtain the reflection vector r. Because the triangle formed by i and a is congruent to the triangle formed by r and a, the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection are equal.
Light that goes into an object is usually absorbed and becomes heat, but if the material is highly transparent such as water and glass, it continues on and passes through to the other side.
When light enters or leaves a different medium, for example from air to water or from water to air, its direction changes. This is called refraction. A straw standing on a glass of water appears bent because of refraction.
Observing refracting popsicle sticks at a science workshop for kids.
If the angle of incidence is θ1, the angle of refraction is θ2, the speed of light in medium 1 is s1, and the speed in medium 2 is s2, the following relationship exists between them.
The speed of light is fastest in a vacuum and slows down in other mediums. When we talk about refraction, this ratio of speed is called the refractive index. The ratio of the speed in a vacuum to the speed in a given material is called the absolute refractive index. In 3D graphics it is also often called IOR (index of refraction). For example, the IOR of water is about 1.33, which means that in water, light travels at 1/1.33 of its speed in a vacuum. Since the speed of light in the atmosphere is about the same as in a vacuum, when light travels from air to water S2S1 in the above equation becomes 1.33 (1/1.331). This page lists the values for various materials.
光の速さは真空中が最も早く、他の媒体の中では遅くなります。屈折のことを考える場合はこの速さの比のことを屈折率と呼びます。真空中の光の速度と、ある物質の中を光が進む速度の比を絶対屈折率と呼びます。3DグラフィクスではIOR(Index of refraction)と呼ばれることも多いようです。例えば水のIORは約1.33で、大気中の光の速度は真空とほぼ同じなので、これは水の中では光は真空中の1/1.33の速さで進むという意味です。空気から水の光が進むときに上の式のS2S1が1.33(1/1.331) になります。このぺージには様々な物質の一覧があります。
Reflection and refraction are related to the property of light as a wave called Huygens’ law. Take a look at these Khan Academy videos.
Reflection and refraction occur simultaneously when light hits an object. With Fresnel equations, you can find the ratio of the amount of light reflected to the amount of light refracted. Because the original equations are a little complex, a formula called Schlick’s approximation is often used in computer graphics. θ is the angle of incidence and n1 and n2 are the IORs of the two substances.
The demo shows that as the angle of incidence increases, ie., as the light becomes closer to parallel to the surface of the object, the reflection component suddenly becomes larger. This is why the water appears to be more transparent close to your feet, while the distant surface mirrors the scenery on the other side more when looking at a lake or a swimming pool. The same occurs with other materials such as plastic and metal, and the edges of objects appear to have more reflection of the background.