Reflective caustic generated from a circle and parallel rays. On one side, each point is contained in three light rays; on the other side, each point is contained in one light ray.
The rays refracted by a non-flat surface form caustics where many of them cross.
Concentration of light, especially sunlight, can burn. The word caustic, in fact, comes from the Greek καυστός, burnt, via the Latin causticus, burning.
A common situation where caustics are visible is when light shines on a drinking glass. The glass casts a shadow, but also produces a curved region of bright light. In ideal circumstances (including perfectly parallel rays, as if from a point source at infinity), a nephroid-shaped patch of light can be produced.[2][3] Rippling caustics are commonly formed when light shines through waves on a body of water.
Another familiar caustic is the rainbow.[4][5] Scattering of light by raindrops causes different wavelengths of light to be refracted into arcs of differing radius, producing the bow.
The planar, parallel-source-rays case: suppose the direction vector is and the mirror curve is parametrised as . The normal vector at a point is ; the reflection of the direction vector is (normal needs special normalization)
Having components of found reflected vector treat it as a tangent
which may be unaesthetic, but gives a linear system in and so it is elementary to obtain a parametrisation of the catacaustic. Cramer's rule would serve.
Example
Let the direction vector be (0,1) and the mirror be
Then
and has solution ; i.e., light entering a parabolic mirror parallel to its axis is reflected through the focus.