Huygens Principle

Christiaan Huygens (1690):

Every point on a primary wavefront serves as a source
of secondary spherical wavelets, such that the primary
wavefront at some later time is the envelope of these
wavelets. Moreover, the wavelets advance with a speed
and frequency equal to those of the primary wave at each
point in space.

What does this imply?

Every point on a wavefront acts as a point source
reradiating the energy in all directions.

Fresnel (19th Century)

Super position of the secondary waves must take into
account the amplitude and the phase of the wavelets.
This is necessary when considering barriers encountered
by the wavefront. Some wavelets will be blocked and the
sum of the remainder describes the resulting wavefront.

Obliquity factor
As you can see from the previous diagram using
Huygens + Fresnel we should see a backward going
wave. An Obliquity factor is added

K ( ) = 1 2 (1 + cos )
where is the normal to the wavefront that suppresses
the backward going waves.
The combined theory, including the obliquity factor
added by Fresnel, is called the Huygens Fresnel
principle.
All properties of wave propagation can be calculated
from the above, including reflections, refraction and
diffraction. See Hecht Section 4.2.2 for a derivation of
Snells law using Huygens Principle.