What isreflection

What constitutes “flat” for light is a bit more nuanced since the reflection of light is an electromagnetic interaction between light and the reflecting material. I’ll go into more detail soon.

Specular reflection requires a high degree of surface flatness relative to the “object” that is being reflected. For day-to-day objects, like a racquetball, this means a smooth surface compared to the racquetball. The ball striking a surface like plexiglass will be nearly specularly reflected. If it strikes an irregular surface like a bumpy dirt road, it is very unlikely that and you will get something called diffuse reflection where it may bounce in any direction.

Refraction oflight

The quality of reflected light depends mostly on the interface in which the light is interacting. Consider first an ideal, perfectly smooth, entirely reflective surface with no transmission or diffusion. The incoming angle is called the angle of incidence, and the angle leaving the surface is the angle of reflection, . When the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, we say that reflection is a perfect specular reflection or regular reflection.

The relation that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection combined with the observation that the normal direction, incident, and reflected rays lie in the same plane is known as the law of reflection.

To start, I have never handled any of the Zebralights or the many lights following their model. I first saw them years back and thought it looked like a durable format for a headlamp. But nowadays, I'm seeing these standard in a lot of kits and EDC options, ranging from prepping to casual use. I'm NOT dubious of it and have armchair criticism, I'm mostly just tilting my head at it because I don't understand all the benefits. Why do you like your right-angle light, what all can it do that others can't?