Can anyone explain why wikipedia's fresnel equations yield reflection magnitudes of that cyclically peak every 10 degrees? I'm using air and polycarbonate. My results for a 0 degree incident angle make sense, but some of the numbers, especially for p polarization start to get crazy. How the heck do i post a spreadsheet with my question?

Question

Can anyone explain why wikipedia's fresnel equations yield reflection magnitudes of that cyclically peak every 10 degrees?  I'm using air and polycarbonate.  My results for a 0 degree incident angle make sense, but some of the numbers, especially for p polarization start to get crazy. How the heck do i post a spreadsheet with my question?

anonymous · Answer

I think you made a mistake calculating the reflection magnitudes. Depending on whether you did power or amplitude reflection, the plots should look something like the ones I attached. Red is for p polarization.

anonymous · Answer

If you are using degrees for angles, make sure the trig. functions you are using are for degrees.

anonymous · Answer

Ugh.. Huge headsmack there.. RADIANS not DEGREES.  It just so happened, i've been only concerned with perpendicular beams, so this misconception has been brewing for a while! So very silly of me.. Thanks!