Rayleigh's Law

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Rayleigh’s Law

 

Rayleigh’s law states that when light of wavelength λ is incident on a medium consisting of dielectric particles with dimensions much smaller than λ, the intensity I of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength: I ~ λ^-4. The law was established by Lord Rayleigh in 1871.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.