By coincidence I have only recently made a classroom poster about this
phenomenon (part of a series I'm putting together) and I was wondering
just the same thing! As you can see, I couldn't find the right word
either:
Words like 'web', 'mesh', and 'network' come to mind, but none work
well.
So I second JD's question!
Derek McKenzie
PhysicsFootnotes.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Phys-L] swimming-pool caustics and spangles ????
From: John Denker via Phys-l <phys-l@mail.phys-l.org>
Date: Sat, June 03, 2017 3:33 am
To: Forum for Physics Educators <Phys-L@Phys-L.org>
Cc: John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>
Hi Folks --
Here's a seasonal bit of physics:
Oftentimes on a sunny day, ripples on the surface of a
swimming pool make beautiful, complicated patterns of
light on the bottom.
People in the swimming pool industry call the patterns simply
"ripples" but IMHO that's a misnomer. I say ripples on the
top of the water explain the caustics on the bottom.
In any case, there's more to the story. The /brightest/ parts
of the pattern are presumably caustics, in the strictest sense
... but is there perhaps a nice name for the pattern as a whole?
Sparkles? Spangles? ?????????