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Meaning of "Fermat's principle" in the English dictionary

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PRONUNCIATION OF FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE

Fermat's principle play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Fermat's principle is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Fermat's principle

In optics, Fermat's principle or the principle of least time is the principle that the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time. This principle is sometimes taken as the definition of a ray of light. However, this version of the principle is not general; a more modern statement of the principle is that rays of light traverse the path of stationary optical length with respect to variations of the path. In other words, a ray of light prefers the path such that there are other paths, arbitrarily nearby on either side, along which the ray would take almost exactly the same time to traverse. Fermat's principle can be used to describe the properties of light rays reflected off mirrors, refracted through different media, or undergoing total internal reflection. It follows mathematically from Huygens' principle. Fermat's text Analyse des réfractions exploits the technique of adequality to derive Snell's law of refraction and the law of reflection. Fermat's principle has the same form as Hamilton's principle and it is the basis of Hamiltonian optics.

Definition of Fermat's principle in the English dictionary

The definition of Fermat's principle in the dictionary is the principle that a ray of light passes from one point to another in such a way that the time taken is a minimum.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE

Fermanagh
Fermat
Fermat´s last theorem
fermata
fermate
ferment
fermentability
fermentable
fermentation
fermentation lock
fermentative
fermentatively
fermentativeness
fermenter
fermentescible
fermentitious
fermentive
fermentor
fermi
Fermi energy

WORDS THAT END LIKE FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE

anthropic principle
Archimedes´ principle
condisciple
disciple
exclusion principle
first principle
four eyes principle
Heisenberg uncertainty principle
in principle
multiple
on principle
participle
past participle
Pauli exclusion principle
Peter Principle
pleasure principle
precautionary principle
present participle
principle
the Peter Principle
uncertainty principle

Synonyms and antonyms of Fermat's principle in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «Fermat's principle» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE

Find out the translation of Fermat's principle to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of Fermat's principle from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «Fermat's principle» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

费马原理
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

El principio de Fermat
570 millions of speakers

English

Fermat´s principle
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

Fermat के सिद्धांत
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

مبدأ فيرما
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

Принцип Ферма
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

Princípio de Fermat
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

ফরম্যাট এর নীতি
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

Le principe de Fermat
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Prinsip Fermat
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Fermat -Prinzip
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

フェルマーの原理
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

페르마의 원리
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Prinsip Fermat
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

Nguyên tắc Fermat
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

பெர்மாட்டின் கொள்கை
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

फर्मॅटचे तत्त्व
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

Fermat ilkesi
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

Principio di Fermat
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

Zasada Fermata
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

Принцип Ферма
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

Principiul lui Fermat
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

Αρχή του Φερμά
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

Fermat se beginsel
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

Fermats princip
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

Fermats prinsipp
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of Fermat's principle

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE»

The term «Fermat's principle» is used very little and occupies the 164.356 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Rarely used
23
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «Fermat's principle» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of Fermat's principle
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «Fermat's principle».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «Fermat's principle» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «Fermat's principle» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about Fermat's principle

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE»

Discover the use of Fermat's principle in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to Fermat's principle and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Ray Optics, Fermat’s Principle, and Applications to General ...
This book is about the mathematical theory of light propagation in media on general-relativistic spacetimes.
Volker Perlick, 2000
2
Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing
In a 1657 letter to Cureau de La Chambre, the attorney and great amateur mathematician Pierre de Fermat announced his highly acclaimed Principle of Least Time (or Fermat's Principle)[Fer]. When expressed in a spacetime context, it has the ...
Arlie O. Petters, Harold Levine, Joachim Wambsganss, 2001
3
Calculus of Variations: Fermat's Principle, Noether's ...
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.
Books Llc, Source: Wikipedia, 2010
4
Geometric Optics: Theory and Design of Astronomical Optical ...
Starting from Fermat's principle, Hamilton introduced characteristic functions for analyzing the behavior of rays in a general optical system (see [17]). Subsequently, Seidel [18] and Schwarzschild [19] defined a new characteristic function ...
Antonio Romano, 2009
5
The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light: Optical Theory and ...
Laplace, in other words, demonstrated that the basic requirement of Huygens's account — that all points of a given front must simultaneously reach the refracted front — implies Fermat's principle for rays. Indeed, Laplace felt Huygens's ...
Jed Z. Buchwald, 1989
6
Military Laser Technology for Defense: Technology for ...
1.2 GEOMETRIC OR RAY OPTICS 1.2.1 Fermat's Principle In 1658, Fermat introduced one of the first variational principles in physics, the basic principle that governs geometrical optics [16]: A ray of light will travel between points P1 and P2 by ...
Alastair D. McAulay, 2011
7
Nonlinear Hyperbolic Waves in Multidimensions
Thus, the wavefront Qt obtained by Huy gens' method can also be obtained as the locus of the tips (at time t) of the rays starting from the various points of the wavefront Qj0. 3.2.4 Fermat's principle Twenty-seven years before Huygens stated ...
Phoolan Prasad, 2001
8
Calculus of Variations: Fermat's Principle, Noether's ...
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.
Source Wikipedia, 2013
9
Astronomical Optics
Written by a recognized expert in the field, this clearly presented, well-illustrated book provides both advanced level students and professionals with an authoritative, thorough presentation of the characteristics, including advantages and ...
Daniel J. Schroeder, 2012
10
Geometrical Optics: Lens, Snell's Law, Fresnel Equations, ...
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.
Source Wikipedia, 2013

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term Fermat's principle is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Obeying a higher law
... a variety of exotic and poetic names: Bragg's Law, Einstein's Field Equation, Fermat's Principle, the Joule-Kelvin Effect, Van Der Waals Force. «Napa Valley Register, Jun 15»
2
SIMPLE PRINCIPLES FOR A COMPLEX WORLD
Rules of thumb such as pi, Fermat's Principle of Least Time, and other mathematical formulae work perfectly or almost perfectly when applied to ... «Huffington Post, Feb 15»
3
Controlling light with freeform optics
T. Glimm, V. Oliker, Optical design of two-reflector systems, the Monge–Kantorovich mass transfer problem and Fermat's principle, Indiana Univ. «SPIE Newsroom, Oct 14»
4
Silicon nanorods bend light in new directions
Fermat's principle – the rule that light travels along the path of least time – says that electromagnetic waves travel along the path on which they ... «physicsworld.com, Aug 14»
5
7 Quick Takes (3/28/14)
Fermat's Principle of Least Time turns up in that Nautilus piece, which I first ran across in Ted Chiang's “Story of Your Life” where xenobiologists ... «Patheos, Mar 14»
6
Anatomy of a championship-level computer programming problem
Fermat's Principle of Least Time holds that light will always take the fastest route between two points. So it makes sense for the robot to behave ... «ITBusiness.ca, Jul 13»
7
Dissecting a championship programming problem
Fermat's Principle of Least Time holds that light will always take the fastest route between two points. So it makes sense for the robot to behave ... «ITWorld Canada, Jul 13»
8
Calculus Thrift Shop
dude, i can use calculus to prove (with fermat's principle) the snell's law, prove that E=mc^2, predict the movement of a mechanical system, like ... «YouTube, Jun 13»
9
Ants Use 'Math' To Find Fastest Route, Study Shows
The findings demonstrate that Fermat's principle of light travel also applies to living creatures, the researchers conclude. The ants rely on trails ... «Huffington Post, Apr 13»
10
Ants 'Use Math' to Find Fastest Route
The findings demonstrate that Fermat's principle of light travel also applies to living creatures, the researchers conclude. The ants rely on trails ... «LiveScience.com, Apr 13»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Fermat's principle [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/fermats-principle>. Apr 2024 ».
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