Re: moonlight

[Robert Cohen <Robert.Cohen@PO-BOX.ESU.EDU>]

For those who do not have Bohren's book, he only addresses why
the light is concentrated "beneath" the moon.  He does not
address Skip's question.

____________________________________________
Robert Cohen; rcohen@po-box.esu.edu; 570-422-3428; http://www.esu.edu/~bbq
Physics, East Stroudsburg Univ., E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Woolf [mailto:larry.woolf@GAT.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 11:48 AM
>
> See the discussion and diagrams on pages 66-68 in
> "What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks" by Craig Bohren.
>
> The chapter "Highway Mirages" also has a nice discussion of the other
> mirages besides the dry "wet" highway.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kilmer, Skip
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 7:11 AM
> >
> > When one sees moonlight reflected from the surface of a 
> lake, if the =
> > water is at all disturbed, the disk is stretched into a 
> line. I've al=
> > ways thought of this as diffuse reflection from the rippled 
> surface, =
> > and as I think about it, I can't satisfy myself why the 
> light should =
> > be concentrated "beneath" the moon. Why don't the randomly 
> directed s=
> > urface ripples make it just as likely that light hitting 
> off to the s=
> > ide would reflect into our eyes?