Snell’s window
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
Anglers can hide themselves from their prey by exploiting a phenomenon arising from total internal reflection. When the surface of a pool of water is flat, a fish beneath the surface will observe the entire hemisphere above the water in a cone of angle 97°, a region known as Snell’s window or the optical man-hole. So if anglers position themselves at a low viewing angle relative to the surface of the water, their image is squashed and out of focus to the fish and they will remain undetected.
References
P. J. Herring, A. K. Campbell, M. Whitfield, & L. Maddock, Light and Life in the Sea, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 169.
D. A. Ross, The Fisherman’s Ocean, Mechanisburg, PA, Stackpole Books, 2000, p. 151.
