Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.Most optical phenomena can be accounted for by using the classical electromagnetic description of light. Complete electromagnetic descriptions of light are, however, often difficult to apply in practice. Practical optics is usually done using simplified models. The most common of these, geometric optics, treats light as a collection of rays that travel in straight lines and bend when they pass through or reflect from surfaces. Physical optics is a more comprehensive model of light, which includes wave effects such as diffraction and interference that cannot be accounted for in geometric optics. Historically, the ray-based model of light was developed first, followed by the wave model of light. Progress in electromagnetic theory in the 19th century led to the discovery that light waves were in fact electromagnetic radiation.
Some phenomena depend on the fact that light has both wave-like and particle-like properties. Explanation of these effects requires quantum mechanics. When considering light's particle-like properties, the light is modelled as a collection of particles called "photons". Quantum optics deals with the application of quantum mechanics to optical systems.
Optical science is relevant to and studied in many related disciplines including astronomy, various engineering fields, photography, and medicine (particularly ophthalmology and optometry). Practical applications of optics are found in a variety of technologies and everyday objects, including mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, lasers, and fibre optics.
Hello,
I am wondering if one can create a magnetic field which can be seen by a human eye? I have learned that light is nothing else but electromagnetic field with a wavelength between 400-800 nm. Colours correspond to different wavelength within the above spectrum. So isn't it theoretically...
Hi everyone :]
This is my first time here. I have this Quantum Optics question (though I don't believe there is anything QM about this question, so please let me know if I've incorrectly placed this thread) as part of a (nonmarked) assignment.
Here's the question:
"What is the maximal...
I've made a drawing of what is confusing me here.
1. This should be a case of focusing into infinity or not?
2. Can anyone explain what happens with the owl?
If there is an light source that is emitting light with the wl of 450nm (blue) and it illuminated a low reflective red object. How would the wavelength be different then if the object was a white object or the emitted light is from a white led. How would we determine this. I am working on a...
Homework Statement
Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution
## v = \frac { \omega } k ##
## \omega = \sqrt{ kg \tanh (k) } ##I have no idea to guess the graph.
I put g = 9.8 and tried to calculate ## \omega ## for different values of k.
## \omega (0 ) = 0,
\omega (30) =...
Homework Statement
Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution
When the system is in air
## d \sin {\theta} = n \lambda ## ...(1)
When the system is in water and slit separation is 2d,
## \mu 2d \sin {\theta} = n \lambda ## ...(2)
## \tan {\theta} = \frac y D ## ...( 3)...
If someone has used the python program POPPY, I'd like some help. How can I set up two wavefronts entering at slightly different angles, and then see the interference pattern?
Hi
I have a personal art project and I am stuck, because of very limited knowledge.
I'd like to project an 1-2 meter white line from 1-3 meter distance. The projected line should be as thin as possible (3-10mm) and as powerful as possible. I created a DIY projector, but my problem is that, the...
Homework Statement
This problem concerns a single slit diffraction experiment where Fraunhofer diffraction is observed on an observing screen via a positive converging lens with focal distance f. The diffraction pattern has a central maximum of width dy, and the vacuum wavelength of the light...
the largest telescope in the world has an aperture of 10 m. According to the fresnel distance this makes ray optics valid for it, for a wavelength of lightsay 500 nm, uptil a distance of 2 * 10^7 m. I have read that after the fresnel distance, diffraction tends to dominate. But telescopes tend...
Homework Statement
Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution
I think that ## \frac { \sin \theta } {\sin \theta ' } = \frac { n_2} { n_1} ##
I am taking the dielectric constant as 1 as the potential is 0 i.e. the medium is air..
So, ##n_1 = 1##
For the 2nd medium,
The dielectric...
Homework Statement
I have the following variables:
f = .93 m
f(e) (eyepiece) = .0082 m
distance toJupiter pj = 588 E^9
diameter of Jupiter dj = 139822 E^3
Find the height of the image of Jupiter created by the objective lens of a telescope.
Homework Equations
M = -q/p
q = f
Where M is the...
Homework Statement
The sodium D-lines are a pair of narrow, closely spaced, approximately equal intensity spectral lines with a mean wavelength of approximately 589 nm. A Michelson interferometer is set up to study the D-lines from a sodium lamp. High contrast fringes are seen for zero...
the 1/a + 1/b = 1/c keeps cropping up all over the
place like the lens/mirror formula, parallel resistors but why? All these somewhat seem related to me as some kind of harmonic average, like they're the constraints of some kind of crossed ladder problem...
Hi!
I have a problem understanding what happens when a plane electromagnetic wave hits a surface consisting of two medias of different optical density.
My old school litterature tells me two formulas which I really don't understand where they come from.
The same teacher starts by telling me...
Homework Statement
A person with a near point of 100 cm , but excellent distant vision, normally wears corrective glasses. But he loses them while traveling. Fortunately, he has his old pair as a spare. If the lenses of the old pair have a power of +2.55 diopters , what is his near point...
I'm using a non-polarizing beamsplitter cube in an experiment, but it's behaving in an unexpected way. I expected that, if a laser beam enters the cube from one side, ~50% of the beam passes through the cube in the same direction, while ~50% of the beam is reflected and exits the cube at a...
Hi,
I am trying to create an HUD display - basically create a virtual image at infinity and look at it. I have two plano-convex lenses; the distance between them is the sum of their focal lengths; my object is therefore imaged at infinity. Here is the schematics that I'm pretty much trying to...
Good evening everyone. For my third year optics course we have to do a research lab that includes a lab component for a project. Our prof has suggested we look into something that interests us an design a lab around it. Personally I have always had an interest in military technology and was...
I require your help to list all phenomena described as interferences in physics ( as teached nowadays ) with their citations in scholar documents if they are not well known by non-specialists. I am open to adjacent domains like information theory and mathematics.
There are already light...
When light from a rarer medium enters a denser medium, the wave gets refracted into the denser medium and so the wavelenght and the speed of propagation decreases ( [v][1] >[SUBv][/SUB2]) but the frequency remains the same. HOW ?
[SUBv][/SUB1] / [SUBλ][/SUB1] = [SUBv][/SUB2] / [SUBλ][/SUB2]...
According to me this topic must be raised and discussed how fermat did it without calculus.What problems he faced since calculus was developed afterwards by Newton leibniz.
http://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.1514235
Moderator's edit: File substituted by link due to potential copyright...
Homework Statement
I have a system like image below
An object 1 (OP = Object plane) is projected onto the image plane 1 (IMP) where an eye is located, with a beam splitter (BS). This eye is also looking at some object at distance far away. I would like to magnify this image of the object at...
I have a simple paper with parallel grid lines and I know the height of the observer from the ground level.
Now when I snap the picture with my camera, the effect i get is what is seen in the image below. Even if the lines are parallel, the perception is that they converge in the middle.
When...
1. “The profile of a transverse harmonic wave, traveling at 1.2 m s^-1 is given by y(x)=(0.02 m)sin[157 rad m^-1)x]. Determine amplitude, wavelength, frequency, angular frequency, and period.
Homework Equations
y(x,t)=Acos(kx-wt)[/B]The Attempt at a Solution
I attempted to change it to a...
From the Maxwell Equations we know that there are four boundary conditions for an electromagnetic wave crossing an interface between two dielectric media. For the TE polarisation state, these conditions give us that
E_{i} + E_{r} = E_{t}
B_{i}\,\cos\theta_{i} - B_{r}\,\cos\theta_{r} =...
Homework Statement
Gaussian beam of radius R_i and beam width w_i, The beam is reflected off a mirror with a radius of curvature R = R_i and the reflectivity of this mirror is given as rho(r) = rho_0*exp(-r^2/a^2), where r is the radial distance from the center of the mirror and a is a...
Homework Statement
I've linked my data table down below. My problem is the relative intensity column. From the table, the units of relative intensity are w/m/s. I'm assuming this is power/velocity, where velocity is the speed of light. However, nowhere in the lab manual did it mention the...
I have a problem with the phase of an electric field as it is reflected by and transmitted through a dielectric interface.
At the boundary between the two media, all waves must exist simultaneously and the tangential component must be equal on both sides of the interface, right? Therefore for...
Fifth Year BS-MS Student from one of the premier institutes in India
CGPA: 8.1/10
GRE : 310/340
168Q 142V 4AWA
TOEFL: 104/120
22R 27L 26S 29W
I am applying for graduate schools in the following universities. Is the list sufficient? Any suggestion is most welcome.
The list is not priority-wise...
Hi, I'm currently in my last year of undergrad and I'm wondering about which specialization I should pursue. I'm looking for career stability, I don't mind leaving academia I'd just like to employ what I study in school in my future career. So, to my questions
1) In terms of career stability...
I posted the following on a phone forum and got no replies, as expected. It's a bit out-of-the-way and technical. Thought this might be a better place since the question still interests me.
I'm using my phone to take photos of assembly procedures on my electronics workbench. However, the focus...
Kia ora
I'm a fist year engineering student in Christchurch NZ, and a few friend and I, are designing a simple engineering report for a water projection system for an organization called gap filler. Were currently thinking of projecting an image of music onto the river Avon so people can read...
Learning Radiometry, Photometry, Optics, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics(Statics & Dynamics) with great resources.
I'm looking for resources for understanding the topics above. I prefer video tutorials as opposed to books but I couldn't find any video resources on Photometry and Radiometry (I...
I recently was able to view a 193 foot building from 24 miles away. The base of the building is approximately 15 feet above sea level and my eye level was approximately 9 feet above sea level. I was viewing the building across a Lake. I could see a substantial amount of the building, which...
We were given an assignment on Polaroids and I couldn't find the uses of H sheet Polaroid and K sheet Polaroid.
I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks!
Hello Everyone!
I am Sharvari from India, interested in quantum and non linear optics and wish to pursue PhD in this domain. I am looking forward to active discussion on the grad school discussion forum as I will be applying for grad schools this year.
Consider the Kirkoff integral theorem and the Huygens -Fresnel principle/formula (both from Wikipedia):
KIT
The Kirchoff integral for monochromatic wave is:
$$U({\mathbf {r}})={\frac {1}{4\pi }}\int _{S'}\left[U{\frac {\partial }{\partial {\hat {{\mathbf {n}}}}}}\left({\frac...
Hi,
I am having trouble wrapping my head around a simple (I think?) question about birefringent walkoff:
If the crystal is oriented at some angle such that walkoff is nonzero between e and o beams (in a nonlinear conversion process, for example), it seems to me that reflecting the light...
There are two optically transparent tissues in the human body: the cornea and the lens. But how they achieve this transparency is different, and both in turn appear to achieve this differently than in other optically clear materials like glass.
The transmission of light through glass or other...
Hi there,
I have a question concerning the etalon (One would think that I find an answer for this in every standard physics textbook or this forum, but I actually did not):
An etalon can be built from a solid block of glas (for example) with dielectric high reflectivity coatings (let's say R=99...
Homework Statement
The transmitter is on the left, and the receiver is on the right. The transmitter transmits radiowaves. The distance between them is d = 50.0 m & each one's height is h = 35.0 m. The receiver can receive the radiowaves directly from the transmitter, or through reflection...
Hi, I don't have much experience with amateur astronomy, but I was going to try and take a few shots with my Canon EOS 20d mounted on my 6" Ritchey-Chretien astrograph this Monday. The telescope was manufactured by Orion, and was a few hundred dollars so probably not the highest quality. Since...
Hello guys,
I am trying to understand the following experiment:
1. Prepare a 2 level atom in state |0>
2. Shine in a Pi/2 pulse --> atom goes to 1/√2 (|0>+|1>)
3. Wait time T
4. Shine in second Pi/2 pulse
a) if the state is pure: atom will go to state |1>, p1=1
b) if the state is...
The combination of a half-wave plate followed by a polarizer is commonly used as a variable attenuator for polarized lasers. The idea is that the beam enters the half-wave plate, and you rotate the half-wave plate leading to a rotation of the polarization direction of the beam. As the beam is...
Hi,
Can someone start me out with creating predictable temperatures and inputs for calculations.
Here is a miniature example of the type of parabolic circulated water heating devices I have been building.
My first questions would be what is the potential heating energy of the sun per cm2?
And...