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Consider the interesting shape of the lit region that is formed on the coffee cup in the
image below.

From observing the image we see that the light is reaching the cup from the direction of
the handle, and is then being reflected from the cylindrical internal surface of the cup, as
is visualised in the image below

1
In this specific setup we may assume that the rays are parallel and reaching the internal
circular surface are reflected from the surface of the cap as is shown below.

Orange lines represent parallel rays of incident light, the green lines are the reflected light
rays. We wish to find the equation of the curve that form the boundary of the brightly
illuminated region. The bright region is formed because the reflected light rays accumulate
in this region. This is somewhat similar to focusing the light with a lens. This motivates
the following definition: a caustic is the envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a
curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface.
The caustic is a curve or surface to which each of the light rays is tangent, defining a
boundary of an envelope of rays as a curve of concentrated light. Concentration of light,
especially sunlight, can burn. The word caustic, in fact, comes from the Greek καυστ oσ,
burnt, via the Latin caustics, burning. The particular shape above often seen on coffee
cups is therefore called the coffee cup caustic. Finding the shape of the caustic can be
now defined mathematically as follows: Given a family of curves (in case of light and
geometric optics approximation the curves are actually straight lines, but we will develop
the approach in the general case of curves) , parameterized by some parameter θ, that
are defined by the implicit equation F (x, y, θ) = 0. Find the equation of the curve that
(x(θ), y(θ)) that intersects each curve in the family and is tangent to it at each point of
1
intersection. For example a following family of circles with the radius 2
and center on the
unit circle
can be specified by the implicit equation

1
(x − cos(θ))2 + (y − sin(θ))2 = .
4
2
We would like to find a curve (x(θ), y(θ)) that it tangent to all the curves in the family.
In this specific case it is easy to identify two such curves, namely the circles with radius
1/2 and 3/2 centred at the origin. But how do we find it in general? We may assume that
the parameter θ is chosen in such a way that the point (x(θ), y(θ)) lies on the curve in
the family of curves that corresponds to the parameter θ. That is this curve must satisfy

F (x(θ), y(θ), θ) = 0.

since each point of the curve belongs to some line form the family of lines. This is only
one equation , but we have two unknowns x(θ), y(θ). We have used the condition on
intersection but we didn’t use the tangency condition. Since we want to speak about
tangency conditions that tangent line to each curve in the family of curves must be
defined, thus we need to assume that the function F ∈ C 1 (R3 ), that is F is continuously
differentiable with respect to each argument. In that case using the chain rule
d  ∂F ∂F ∂F
F (x(θ), y(θ), θ) = (x(θ), y(θ), θ)x0 (θ)+ (x(θ), y(θ), θ)y 0 (θ)+ (x(θ), y(θ), θ) = 0
dθ ∂x ∂y ∂θ
Note that (x0 (θ), y 0 (θ)) is tangent vector to the curve (x(θ), y(θ)). The vector
 
∂F ∂F
(x(θ), y(θ), θ), (x(θ), y(θ), θ)
∂x ∂y
is normal to the plane curve from the family that correspond to the parameter θ. The
tangency condition therefore implies that
∂F ∂F
(x(θ), y(θ), θ)x0 (θ) + (x(θ), y(θ), θ)y 0 (θ) = 0
∂x ∂y
From the equation above we see that this is equivalent to
∂F
(x(θ), y(θ), θ) = 0.
∂θ
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Thus the curve (x(θ), y(θ)) satisfies the system of equations

F (x(θ), y(θ), θ) = 0

.
 ∂F (x(θ), y(θ), θ) = 0

∂θ
Let us now analyze the family of curves for the coffee cup caustics problem. We may
assume without loss of generality that we are on the unit circle. Then considering a single
incident light ray that hits the circular surface at height sin(θ) for some θ we have the
following picture.

The reflected (green) line passes through the point (cos(θ), sin(θ)) and intersect the
positive direction of the x axis at the angle of 2θ. Thus its equation is

tan(2θ)(x − cos(θ)) = (y − sin(θ)).

Multiplying by cos(2θ) and writing in implicit form we obtain

sin(2θ)x − cos(2θ)y − (sin(2θ) cos(θ) − cos(2θ) sin(θ)) = 0.

Using the trigonometric identity for the sine of difference we have

sin(2θ) cos(θ) − cos(2θ) sin(θ) = sin(θ).

Thus the family of the reflected curves is specified by the equation

F (x, y, θ) = sin(2θ)x − cos(2θ)y − sin(θ).

∂F
(x, y, θ) = 2 cos(2θ)x + 2 sin(2θ)y − cos(θ)
∂θ
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Rewriting the equations for the parametric curve (x(θ), y(θ))in matrix notation we obtain

       
1 1
sin(2θ) − cos(2θ) x cos(2θ − 2 π) sin(2θ − 2 π) x sin(θ)
   =    =  
1 1 1
cos(2θ) sin(2θ) y − sin(2θ − 2 π) cos(2θ − 2 π) y 2
cos(θ)

If you were wondering why would I rewrite the matrix in such a form, the answer is
in order to invert it effortlessly. When the matrix is written in this form it is easy to
recognize it as the rotation matrix in the clockwise direction (negative rotation in the
usual convention) by the angle 2θ − 21 π, the inverse of this matrix is therefore the rotation
counterclockwise by the same angle. Inverting the matrix we conclude that

       
1 1
x(θ) cos(2θ − 2 π) − sin(2θ − 2 π) sin(θ) sin(2θ) cos(2θ) sin(θ)
 =  =  .
1 1 1 1
y(θ) sin(2θ − 2 π) cos(2θ − 2 π) 2
cos(θ) − cos(2θ) sin(2θ) 2
cos(θ)

The solution is therefore given by

1
x(θ) = sin(2θ) sin(θ) + cos(2θ) cos(θ)
2
1
y(θ) = − cos(2θ) sin(θ) + sin(2θ) cos(θ)
2
plotting it we obtain

With perfect agreement with the observed phenomena.