Design Nomenclature / Light & Optics
Scattering
Also called Rayleigh scattering, Mie scattering, volumetric scattering
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
Light redirected out of its path by particles or inhomogeneities rather than by a smooth boundary. Rayleigh scatter, off things far smaller than the wavelength, is strongly wavelength-dependent and is why the sky is blue; Mie scatter, off things at or above it, is not, and is why cloud and milk are white.
In practice
One mechanism under subsurface scattering, atmospheric perspective, and haze — where it happens gives it the name, not what happens. The wavelength dependence is the part worth carrying: it explains why the same sky is blue overhead and red at the horizon, through more air.
Not to be confused with
- RefractionThe bending of light as it crosses between media of differing index, because its phase velocity changes; Snell's law fixes the new angle from the ratio of the two indices. It is what makes a submerged rod look broken and what gives a lens any power at all.
- DiffractionThe spreading and interference of light as it passes an edge or aperture — a wave effect rather than a ray one. It sets the resolution floor of any optical system, puts the star points on a stopped-down aperture, and produces the rainbow sheen on a disc's pitch.