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Huygens' principle
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From Christiaan Huygens, Dutch physicist.
Proper noun
en physics The assumption that each point on a wavefront may be regarded as a source of secondary waves and that the position of the wavefront at a later time is determined by the envelope of these secondary waves; proposed in order to explain the fact that light travels in a straight line and casts sharp shadows.
Related terms
en Huygens-Fresnel principle
Translations
Hungarian: hu Huygens–Fresnel-elv
Polish: pl zasada Huygensa f
en eponyms