Ken wrote:
> 
> Matt Giwer wrote:
> >
> > "SamuelT." wrote:
> >
> > > When I read this statement of yours I immediately thought of mirages. I
> > > wonder if mirages are caused in part to this natural effect?
> >
> >         Yes. It is a total reflection angle that is dependent upon the
> > IOR of what is reflecting it. Air near the ground is hotter,
> > decreasing its IOR.
> 
>  I meant to bring this up with a couple of the other comments made to this
> thread and that is that it's not a reflection action that occurs rather
> it is a refraction through the differing IOR's that makes the phenomenon
> happen. Reflection and refraction are two different physical occurrences
> and they are in most cases mutually exclusive.
> 
	??? What do you mean "mutually exclusive"? In most cases, both occur
simultaneously (each time you change medium: air/water, air/glass, ...).
The only cases I can think of where you can have one without the other
is the mirage (or anytime the IOR changes continuously) where you only
have refraction and the metallic surface where you have no transmitted
light (and therefore no refraction...)

		Jerome

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