HE fact that total reflection does not take place at the geo- metrical boundary of two media was discovered and experimentally investigated by Newton.' According to Newton the path of the ray during total reflection was a parabola, ' the vertex being within the rarer medium.The problem was both experimentally and theoretically studied by Fresnel, ' and more or less treated by Verdet, ' Young, ' Huygens, ' Biot, Babinet, ' Billet, ' Stokes, " and others.The first reliable quantitative work was published by G.Quincke" in t866.The purpose of the present paper is to investigate quantitatively the penetration in thin films, from the first boundary of which "total reflection" takes place, and to extend the study qualitatively to the case in which the second or rarer medium is no longer thin. INTRODUCTION.Many of the phenomena in the case of thin films may be easily obtained qualitatively.If two glass prisms be pressed together, and if the thickness of the air film between them be sufficiently small, total reflection no longer takes place in the air-layer between ~Newton,
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E. Hall (1902) studied this question.