ABSTRACT
At the boundary separating two media a wave is partially reflected, interfering with the incident wave, and partially transmitted into the second medium. This chapter discusses the criteria for the reflection and transmission of plane waves under different conditions of oblique and normal incidence on the boundary between two media, and presents the structure of the interference field formed when the reflected wave is superposed on the incident wave. It provides attention to media which support only longitudinal waves, i.e., liquids and gases, since the results obtained also hold for other types of waves. At boundaries between solid media, in addition to being reflected and refracted, waves are also transformed from one form into another, but the general energy balance and the laws of reflection and refraction remain the same for each wave. The chapter focuses on monochromatic plane waves with infinitesimal amplitude, taking into account the role of non-monochromaticity, nonlinear effects, and attenuation in the adjacent media.
