Bragg's law

American  

noun

Physics.

1. the law that the intensity of a crystal reflection of an x-ray is a function of the angle Braggangle that is the complement of the angle of incidence of the x-ray.

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Bragg's law British  

noun

1. the principle that when a beam of X-rays of wavelength λ enters a crystal, the maximum intensity of the reflected ray occurs when sin θ = n λ/2 d , where θ is the complement of the angle of incidence, n is a whole number, and d is the distance between layers of atoms

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Etymology

Origin of Bragg's law

First recorded in 1910–15; named after Sir W. H. and Sir W. L. Bragg