Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A law describing the refraction of a ray of light at the surface between two media, such that the product of the refractive index of the first medium and the sine of the angle of incidence equals the product of the refractive index of the second medium and the sine of the angle of refraction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • 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 the refraction of the first medium is equal to the sine of the angle of refraction times the index of refraction of the second medium

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Willebrord Snel, van Royen (1580–1626), also called Willebrord Snellius, Dutch astronomer and mathematician who formulated the law.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

For Willebrord van Roijen Snell Dutch mathematician

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