deflection of light
- noun
- /dɪˈflɛkʃən əv laɪt/
- Specialized
:
deflexión de la luz
- The deflection of light around a black hole reveals crucial information about its gravitational effects.
Examples
-
But because measurements of the deflection of light described above place the lower bound on Omega at greater than 3000, Brans-Dicke theory has generally been regarded as all but dead.
Academic text (1999) -
The deflection of light as it passes through a prism creates a spectrum of colors.
-
Eddington himself was gone for almost the entire Easter term, when Hubble was in Cambridge, on the famous solar eclipse expedition to Principe, West Africa, to measure the gravitational deflection of light.
Academic text (1990) -
Scientists study the deflection of light to understand how rainbows are formed after rain.
Synonyms
8
6.7
The bending of light or sound when it moves into a different material
1
7.2
How much a wave bends from its original path when it passes through or hits something
The amount something moves away from its original position
Antonyms
How Much
- Specialized
- Specialized
8
6.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
deflection + of + light
The phrase is directly compositional: 'deflection' means bending and 'light' names electromagnetic radiation, so 'deflection of light' straightforwardly denotes the bending of light rays. This is a literal, non-idiomatic noun-of-noun construction (common cross-linguistically), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will understand the meaning.
Etymology
Deflection of light comes from the picture of light being pushed aside or bent when it moves into a new material or goes past an object, and deflection means that push. Think of a straw that looks bent in a glass or sunlight making a rainbow, and these images show why the phrase means 'the bending of light'.