VLVL2 (9.5): "Caustics of Sunlight"

[Dave Monroe]

"The women sat in the Ninjette Coffee Mess and watched
the caustics of sunlight flutter on the insides of
their cups." (VL, Ch. 9, p. 155)

Main Entry: caustic
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 : a caustic agent: as a : a substance that burns or
destroys organic tissue by chemical action b : SODIUM
HYDROXIDE
2 : the envelope of rays emanating from a point and
reflected or refracted by a curved surface 

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

The Coffeecup Caustic

You are drinking from a cylindrical cup in the
sunshine. Sometimes, when the sun shines into the cup,
you can see a crescent of light as the sunshine
reflects from the inside of the cup onto the surface
of the drink. Here is a picture of a real cup to jog
your memory.

http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~roy/Caustic/Caustic.jpg

Here's why....

http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~roy/Caustic/

Papers on Caustics and Bidirectional Ray Tracing

http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~arvo/papers/OtherWork.html

An Implementation Of A Recursive Ray Tracer That
Renders Caustic Lighting Effects

http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Indep/SCheah/causticpaper.html

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