the principle that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is constant when a light ray passes from one medium to another
Word origin
C17: named after Willebrord Snell (1591–1626), Dutch physicist
Snell's law in American English
(snelz)
noun
Optics
the law that, for a ray incident on the interface of two media, the sine of the angle of incidence times the index of refraction of the first medium is equal to the sine of the angle of refraction times the index of refraction of the second medium
Word origin
[named after Willebrod Snell van Royen (d. 1626), Dutch mathematician]