Abstract
DR. BALL is surely wrong in suggesting in NATURE of January 5, p. 8, that the difference between Mr. Mallock's figure for the radius of curvature of a nearly horizontal ray and that given by Dr. de Graaff Hunter is accounted for by any consideration of the curvature of the wave-front. If such were the case, then an observer looking towards the sea horizon would see a ray of light in different directions for different initial curvatures of the wave-front. Suppose an observer from the bridge of a ship were looking at a search-light placed at sea-level at the extreme limit of visibility. The rays of the searchlight beam would be plane waves, those coming from the barrel of the searchlight spherical. Does Dr. Ball wish us to infer that in such circumstances the visible beam would appear to the observer to issue from a point above the projector?—for that is what his suggestion leads to.
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BAKER, T. Atmospheric Refraction. Nature 109, 105 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109105a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109105a0
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