Search the Dictionary

The direction in which a body, or a ray of light or heat, falls on any surface. In equal incidences there is a considerable inequality of refractions. Sir I. Newton. Angle of incidence, the angle which a ray of light, or the line of incidence of a body, falling on any surface, makes with a perpendicular to that surface…

The angle between the chord of an aërocurve and the relative direction of the undisturbed air current.

The condition of occupying the same place in space; as, the coincidence of circles, surfaces, etc. Bentley.

The quality of being incoincident; want of coincidence. [R.]

Lack of coincidence.

eme points of an object to the center of the eye. -- For Angles of commutation, draught, incidence, reflection, refraction, position, repose, fraction, see Commutation, Draught, Incidence, Reflection, Refraction, etc.

Coincidence. [R.]

Having coincidence; occupying the same place; contemporaneous; concurrent; -- followed by with. Christianity teaches nothing but what is perfectly suitable to, and coincident with, the ruling principles of a virtuous and well- inclined man. South.

With coincidence.

A common right; coincidence of equal powers; as, a concurrence of jurisdiction in two different courts.

Coincidence, as that of lines or figures laid over one another.

Act of concurring; coincidence; concurrence. The consilience of inductions takes place when one class of facts coincides with an induction obtained from another different class. Whewell.

, on which every good work so much depends. South. Critical angle (Optics), that angle of incidence of a luminous ray at which it is wholly reflected, and no portion of it transmitted. The sine of this angle is the reciprocal of the refractive index of the medium. -- Critical philosophy, the metaphysical system of Kan…

The coincidence of parts that come in contact.

Incidence. [Obs.] Shak.

Refractive index (Opt.), the number which expresses the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction. Thus the index of refraction for sulphur is 2, because, when light passes out of air into sulphur, the sine of the angle of incidence is double the sine of the angle of refraction.…

e number of screw revolutions necessary to bring the points to be measured into optical coincidence. When the two images are formed by a bisected objects glass, it is called a divided-object-glass micrometer, and when the instrument is large and equatorially mounted, it is known as a heliometer. -- Double refraction m…

an avowal; a claim; as, his professions are insincere. The Indians quickly perceive the coincidence or the contradiction between professions and conduct. J. Morse.

ual; to feel vividly or strongly; to make one's own in apprehension or experience. Many coincidences . . . soon begin to appear in them [Greek inscriptions] which realize ancient history to us. Jowett. We can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment. Sir W. Hamilton.…

-- Relative refractive index (of two media) (Opt.), the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction for a ray passing out of one of the media into the other.