And it's important factors in the ocean that will really impact how waves break. This leads us neatly into wave refraction. It's probably a term you've heard over the course of your surfing life.

Refraction occurs when light changes direction as it passes, e.g., ... Optical lattices are like "egg cartons" made of light, where atoms are held in place by standing light waves.

Scientists have created a new class of laser beam that appears to violate long-held laws of light physics. Known as “spacetime wave packets,” these lasers follow different rules of refraction ...

Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the eye. It travels as a transverse wave. Unlike a sound waves, light waves do not need a medium to pass through, they can ...

The law of refraction first derived by Snellius and later introduced as the Huygens–Fermat principle 1, states that the incidence and refracted angles of a light wave at the interface of two ...

Negative refraction of light using atoms instead of metamaterials. Lancaster University. Journal Nature Communications DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-56250-w ...

Refraction of Light. 1/4/2016 | 28m 29s Video has Closed Captions | CC. Light energy travels in straight lines and in waves. 01/04/2016 | Rating TV-G ...

Discover how wave refraction works, why it happens and how it affects surfing in this easy-to-understand guide.

This is refraction, and the way a wave breaks can also be impacted by what's going on under the surface on the ocean floor. So every surf spot in the world has its own unique footprint.