What's the word in English for the path of light on a reflective surface made by a light source above the surface (such as moonlight on the water)? Will accept non-English words as well ;-) Thanks!

Reflection? Reflective shimmer?

I don’t think there is one. I think “reflection” is the best we’ve got.

Luminescent (sp? )

Irridescent? (sp)

Candescent?

Sometimes there is no word, in which case you have to define your own term. And it seems you have already done that. Oh the beauty of language. Now all you’ve got to do is choose a word, and hope people use it.

One thing it is called is “The Shining Path.”

Shimmer

Yes! Shimmer! duh…hahaha

I had to go for all the heavy words…simplicity escaped me. haha

radiosity

I read a Laura Ingalls Wilder book called “By the Shores of Silver Lake. She mentions this in a chapter, and called it “moonpath.” I’ve always liked the sound of it.

@marinelife Wasn’t that a Peruvian terrorist organization?

@marinelife “Shining Path” has already been co-opted. Google the term and you’ll see what I mean.

@Trillian “moonpath” is good.

I’m sure that I’ve seen terms for this phenomenon in a lot of poetry, but none of it occurs to me at this moment.

Bee boy? Is that you?

@Trillian okay, I give. Back to the dorg. I didn’t have the patience to read the thread yesterday: Why did so many people adopt AstroChuck’s avatar as their own?

Why not?

I have no idea. I’m not much of one to follow the crowd, I generally go my own way. I know that Chuck wigged out at one point….

Moonbeam.

Light is light, regardless of how it’s path is altered. You would refer to it the same as a beam of light that hasn’t been reflected.

interesting…wow, thanks for so many responses!

My first question on Fluther…impressed but not yet ready to surrender. Radiosity is probably most technically correct, moonpath loveliest of above, Sendera Luminosa most provocative. Where are the poet entymologists among us? Also, any words in other languages?

It’s Sendero Luminoso.

umm, yep. Thx.

Glare

Angle of refraction

Relected ray is used when the lightsource is omni-directional, while polarized reflected ray would be the correct optical term if the light source was uni-directional. So it depends on the lightsource really :)

http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol211/proplight.htm

I have three words for it: shiny light thingy. I like mine the most. :-)