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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Deflection (physics)</span></span>
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<p><b>Deflection</b> is a change in a moving object's <a href="Velocity" title="Velocity">velocity</a>, hence its <a href="Trajectory" title="Trajectory">trajectory</a>, as a consequence of contact (<a href="Collision" title="Collision">collision</a>) with a surface or the influence of a <a href="Non-contact_force" title="Non-contact force">non-contact force</a> <a href="Field_(physics)" title="Field (physics)">field</a>. Examples of the former include a ball bouncing off the ground or a bat; examples of the latter include a <a href="Cathode_ray" title="Cathode ray">beam of electrons</a> used <a href="Cathode_ray_tube" class="mw-redirect" title="Cathode ray tube">to produce a picture</a>, or the <a href="General_relativity#Light_deflection_and_gravitational_time_delay" title="General relativity">relativistic bending of light due to gravity</a>.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Deflective_efficiency">Deflective efficiency</h2></div>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="Shock_(mechanics)" title="Shock (mechanics)">shock (mechanics)</a>, <a href="Perfect_mirror" title="Perfect mirror">perfect mirror</a>, and <a href="Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)" title="Absorption (electromagnetic radiation)">absorption (electromagnetic radiation)</a></div>
<p>An object's <b>deflective efficiency</b> can never equal or surpass 100%, for example:
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<ul><li>a mirror will never <a href="Reflection_(physics)" title="Reflection (physics)">reflect</a> exactly the same amount of light cast upon it, though it may concentrate the light which is reflected <a href="Concave_mirror" class="mw-redirect" title="Concave mirror">into a narrower beam</a>.</li>
<li>on hitting the ground, a ball previously in <a href="Free_fall" title="Free fall">free-fall</a> (meaning no force other than <a href="Gravity" title="Gravity">gravity</a> acted upon it) will never bounce back up to the place where it first started to descend.</li></ul>
<p>This transfer of some energy into heat or other radiation is a consequence of the theory of <a href="Thermodynamics" title="Thermodynamics">thermodynamics</a>, where, for every such interaction, some energy must be converted into alternative forms of energy or is absorbed by the deformation of the objects involved in the collision.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Electrostatic_deflection" title="Electrostatic deflection">Electrostatic deflection</a></li>
<li><a href="Coriolis_effect" class="mw-redirect" title="Coriolis effect">Coriolis effect</a></li>
<li><a href="Deflection_yoke" title="Deflection yoke">Deflection yoke</a></li>
<li><a href="Impulse_(physics)" title="Impulse (physics)">Impulse</a></li>
<li><a href="Reflection_(physics)" title="Reflection (physics)">Reflection</a></li></ul>
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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-02-16" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Deflection_(physics)&oldid=1275991609">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
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