| reflection | 1. The act of reflecting, or turning or sending back, or the state of being reflected. Specifically: The return of rays, beams, sound, or the like, from a surface. See Angle of reflection, below. "The eye sees not itself, But by reflection, by some other things." (Shak) The reverting of the mind to that which has already occupied it; continued consideration; meditation; contemplation; hence, also, that operation or power of the mind by which it is conscious of its own acts or states; the capacity for judging rationally, especially in view of a moral rule or standard. "By reflection, . . . I would be understood to mean, that notice which the mind takes of its own operations, and the manner of them, by reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations in the understanding." (Locke) "This delight grows and improves under thought and reflection." (South) 2. Shining; brightness, as of the sun. 3. That which is produced by reflection. Specifically: An image given back from a reflecting surface; a reflected counterpart. "As the sun water we can bear, yet not the sun, but his reflection, there." (Dryden) A part reflected, or turned back, at an angle; as, the reflection of a membrane. Result of meditation; thought or opinion after attentive consideration or contemplation; especially, thoughts suggested by truth. "Job's reflections on his once flourishing estate did at the same time afflict and encourage him." (Atterbury) 4. Censure; reproach cast. "He died; and oh! may no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead." (Prior) 5. <physiology> The transference of an excitement from one nerve fibre to another by means of the nerve cells, as in reflex action. See Reflex action, under Reflex. Angle of reflection, the angle which anything, as a ray of light, on leaving a reflecting surface, makes with the perpendicular to the surface. Angle of total reflection. <optics> Same as Critical angle, under Critical. Synonym: Meditation, contemplation, rumination, cogitation, consideration, musing, thinking. Origin: Written also reflexion. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| reflection coefficient | A measure of the relative permeability of a particular membrane to a particular solute; calculated as the ratio of observed osmotic pressure to that calculated from van't Hoff's law; also equal to 1 minus the ratio of the effective pore areas available to solute and to solvent. (05 Mar 2000) |
| reflection factor | <microscopy> The ratio of reflected light from a surface to the incident light. This is sometimes called the coefficient of reflection. Unless especially stated it takes into account both specular and diffuse reflection. (05 Aug 1998) |
| reflection X-ray microscopy | <technique> A method of producing enlarged images by means of X rays. In this method the radiation is totally reflected at glancing incidence from polished concave mirrors or from the curved surfaces of single crystals by Bragg reflection. The problem of aberration corrections still limits the resolution obtainable. (05 Aug 1998) |
| angle of reflection | <optics> The angle that a ray reflected from a surface makes with a line drawn perpendicular to this surface. It is equal to the angle of incidence. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| grating, reflection | <microscopy> An opaque (metallic) diffraction grating from which incident light is reflected -to form a spectrum, or to act as a micrometric standard for opaque specimens. (05 Aug 1998) |
| interference reflection microscopy | <procedure> An optical technique for detecting the topography of the side of a cell in contact with a planar substrate and for providing information on the separation of the plasmalemma from the substrate. Interference between the reflections from the substrate medium interface and the reflections from the plasmalemma medium interface generate the image. (18 Nov 1997) |
| Fresnel reflection | <microscopy> Process by which radiant flux is reflected from an optically plane boundary between two transparent dielectric materials. (05 Aug 1998) |