Home▸Biology▸Polar Bear Fur: Hollow Hairs as Light Guides (3D)

Polar Bear Fur: Hollow Hairs as Light Guides (3D)

3D total-internal-reflection ray tracer through a hollow, transparent polar-bear guard hair — see why a single hair pipes light down to black skin while a dense bundle of the same clear hairs looks white from scattering.

Biology3DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Details

CategoryBiology

RenderingThree.js · WebGL

DifficultyModerate

Target FPS60

ControlsSliders for incident light angle, hair-wall refractive index, hollow-core diameter, photon flow is animated live, plus a hair-count slider (1 to 91, hex-packed) toggling between a single isolated hair and a dense scattering bundle; click any hair to isolate its own ray path, reset button restores defaults, orbit camera to rotate/zoom

total-internal-reflectionfiber-opticsthermal-adaptationpolar-bearnew-year

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A real, ray-traced look at how a single hollow, transparent polar-bear guard hair can pipe light down to the bear's black skin by total internal reflection, next to why a dense bundle of the very same clear hairs looks white instead.

⚙ Under the hood

3D total-internal-reflection ray tracer through a hollow, transparent polar-bear guard hair, showing why a single hair is clear and light-guiding while a dense bundle of the same hairs looks white from scattering.

total-internal-reflectionfiber-opticsthermal-adaptationpolar-bearnew-year

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install