Optical property of the ellipse derived from energy conservation
It is well known that rays of light originating at one of the foci of an elliptical mirror converge at the other focus after reflecting off the surface.1 Usually this is proven using the equation of the ellipse and geometrical theorems2 or by means of calculus.3 In this paper we show that the proof...
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2003
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| Acceso en línea: | https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_0031921X_v41_n4_p208_Sztrajman http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_0031921X_v41_n4_p208_Sztrajman |
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| Sumario: | It is well known that rays of light originating at one of the foci of an elliptical mirror converge at the other focus after reflecting off the surface.1 Usually this is proven using the equation of the ellipse and geometrical theorems2 or by means of calculus.3 In this paper we show that the proof may be done very easily by considering a simple mechanical system having the same geometry and using conservation energy. © 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers. |
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