caustic surface

noun

caustic surface

noun
1

Engineering, Natural sciences, Optics, Physical sciences, Physics A surface to which rays reflected or refracted by another surface are tangents.

  • Caustic curves and surfaces are called catacaustic when formed by reflection, and diacaustic when formed by refraction.
Related terms
caustic, caustic curve, focus

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.