Fresnel equations
Ecuaciones de Fresnel
- Date
- 1821-1823 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Augustin-Jean Fresnel
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Building on his theory of light as a transverse wave, Fresnel derived equations that exactly predict what fraction of light is reflected and refracted at the interface between two media, depending on the angle of incidence and polarisation; he presented them in full to the French Academy of Sciences in January 1823.
This is a later development of his own 1818 wave theory of light, already in the catalogue; here the milestone is the concrete derivation of the reflection and refraction formulas, not the general wave theory.
What it led to
- A quantitative explanation of light polarisation
- An explanation of Brewster's angle and total internal reflection
- Applications in optical coatings, fibre optics and polarised photography