Optics Forum

Threads

Undergrad Why Does Light Have a Maximum Speed?

  • bluegold
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4

Graduate Photon in a massless mirrored box

  • Rap
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Light Frequency: What is the Lowest/Highest Frequency?

  • JDude13
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Refraction at normal incidence

  • Gobil
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Graduate Finding reflected wave wavelength from electric field equation

  • Point Conception
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Does the reflection coefficient predict equilibrium concentration in osmosis?

  • majlook
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate How can EM waves transmit through subwavelength apertures?

  • gillwill
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

High School Cause of Lightning: What is the Real Explanation?

  • Utter Novice
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Diffractive optics and achromaticism

  • Beer-monster
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Why do I look different in pictures versus a mirror?

  • skisci
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Graduate Why does skylight have maximum polarization at 90° from the sun?

  • jangheej
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Why Do Rain Clouds Produce Lightning While Normal Clouds Don’t?

  • Protonic
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Why does fluorescent bulb reflection differ between two monitor screens?

  • mousemouse123
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Best way to get a large rectangular magnifying mirror

  • pickrrya
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Undergrad Can a high power laser melt a prism?

  • cgardhar
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Is a Math/CS Background Suitable for Graduate Studies in Photonics?

  • NetMage
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Why does white light split into multiple wavelengths and how does resonance amplify sound?

  • Bob Busby
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Photons and human distance perception

  • VBakija
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad How does UV light pass a glass bulb?

  • nickek
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Where does a photon distort spacetime?

  • foolish1
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Interesting Optics Measurements?

  • hy23
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Atmospheric Extinction of Light

  • MK-IV
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

High School How does rainbow form? And Light Question

  • kazefenrir
  • · Replies 18 ·
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18

Undergrad Do refracted rays from a spherical lens always meet at one point?

  • yas-say
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Why does refractive index increase for shorter wavelengths?

  • Beer-monster
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Graduate Gravitational force affected by refraction?

  • Rlam90
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Is light condensed into matter and matter a state of energy?

  • Pengwuino
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

High School Would light from an electric source reach observers at different positions?

  • NicolasJ
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad How does the Quran verse calculation get the speed of light?

  • Ironside
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad What Causes the Optical Illusion in the Pale Blue Dot Photo?

  • Avathacis
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

High School [optics] Those weird blue Christmas lights

  • Envergure
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Graduate Does light persist indefinitely inside a perfectly reflective sphere?

  • shoook
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

High School Why can I see sharply through a very little hole?

  • kompabt
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Why is there a lack of lightning during winter?

  • alexbib
  • · Replies 25 ·
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25

Undergrad Does Einstein's thought experiment on catching light suggest constant speed?

  • lavinia
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate Is it only the speed of light in a vacuum that is constant for all observers?

  • Endervhar
  • · Replies 20 ·
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20

Graduate Understanding Normal Modes of Light Propagation in Anisotropic Crystals

  • taimoortalpur
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad How do you focus a diverging light source with a biconvex lens?

  • tommyers
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Why does total internal reflection occur in a glass isosceles right angle prism?

  • Mohd95
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad How much light passes through an f/11 aperture over a boxed source?

  • mr magoo
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Biconcave vs Biconvex: Which Gives Greater Surface Area?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

High School Why is the speed of light constant?

  • physicsnoob12
  • · Replies 79 ·
3
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79

High School Why does water in a wine glass invert the background pattern?

  • void_2
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Calculating focal length for aspherical lenses

  • CaptainBarbosa
  • · Replies 17 ·
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17

Graduate How is information encoded and decoded in radio waves?

  • RBNYC2
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate What is the actual explanation of diffraction?

  • jeebs
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Does Fermat's principle apply at source and image points?

  • neelakash
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Why must the order of diffraction be an integer?

  • dima_tr
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Fuel Consumption of a Ship Traveling at Near Light Speed

  • guss
  • · Replies 38 ·
2
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38

High School If we were to absorb all the incident light falling upon us

  • LogicalAcid
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate What Are Effective Methods for Mounting a Cylinder Microlens?

  • pavel_ivanov
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Absorption, reflection, and emission in visible and infrared light

  • LogicalAcid
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Using a solar cell as a qualitative test of laser intensity

  • trini
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Why does horizontally polarized light from the sea appear blue?

  • Artlav
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Can two lasers fired oppositely appear to separate faster than light?

  • madah12
  • · Replies 24 ·
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24

Undergrad How do parallel light rays from a CD player interfere if they're out of phase?

  • Cheman
  • · Replies 21 ·
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21

Undergrad A question concerning lenses and the resulting images

  • gsingh2011
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Can It Be Proven That Optics Field Amplitudes Satisfy Negative Frequencies?

  • Niles
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad What is transformer polarity and how does it affect the output?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Why is wave intensity defined as displacement^2 rather than just its magnitude?

  • jeebs
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad How small can a prism be made?

  • mr magoo
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad How does a magnetron produce microwaves?

  • Kalrag
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Why does light travel so slow?

  • physicsnoob12
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Graduate What is the spectral response of Brilliant Blue FCF?

  • Athiril
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Is laser light polarized or unpolarized?

  • klng
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Can single photon detection experiments rule out multiple photons?

  • ndvcx
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Graduate How Do Atoms Influence the Direction of Light During Refraction?

  • dsanz
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad An infrared light that makes a stamp on a the hand visible

  • partialfracti
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate What does polarization really mean?

  • lugita15
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Metamaterials with epsilon and/or mu < 0.

  • yavuznuri
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate How does a photon interact with slit edges in single slit diffraction?

  • cragar
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

High School Can a 5mW 532nm laser pointer burn through things?

  • brewAP2010
  • · Replies 16 ·
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16

Graduate Descartes, lunar eclipses, and the speed of light

  • pseudonym
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Huygens' principle and the absence of back propagation

  • DaTario
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Single slit, optics, special case

  • fluidistic
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Graduate Minimizing inter-photon distance in a non-coherent light interfer. experiment-

  • ndvcx
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate Spherical Huygens Waves and Diffraction: Why Does the Situation Look Different?

  • kooba
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Should phase velocity use the real or modulus of complex refractive index?

  • Niles
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Does the Mirror Equation Apply to Parabolic Mirrors?

  • neelakash
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Unexploited Photons: What Happens to Solar Energy?

  • Kyurius
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Capturing the speed of sound and speed of light on video.

  • n0sferatu
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Calculating UVA irradiance and dose for fruit fly exposure

  • hopeariipus
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad If I know the Solar Hour Angle at sunrise, can I calculate twilight by simply -

  • IzzaddinR
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Where can I find reliable sources on sinusoidal gratings?

  • dacruick
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Construstive Interference of Waves. Why don't They cancel Out?

  • johnnyapplese
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate The optics of circular polarizers in photography

  • Redbelly98
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Graduate Evanescent waves in the Drude-Lorentz model: absorption vs reflection

  • eoghan
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad What Determines the Physical Size of a Radio Wave's Amplitude?

  • fraserev
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad How Does Rotating a Polarizing Filter Affect Sky Photography?

  • MrJimH
  • · Replies 18 ·
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18

High School Creating Plasma with Lasers: Can It Be Done?

  • Kalrag
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Calculation of diffraction picture (partially coherent illumination)

  • Sergei_G
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad How is the speed of light measured in water, glass, and diamond?

  • ravisastry
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Cause of Lightning - Understand How It Happens

  • AlchemistK
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School How do scientists control the intensity of fluorescent lights?

  • cobrastrike
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Why are sunsets red if blue light scatters and other wavelengths are absorbed?

  • floater2011
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Undergrad What is ball lightning and what causes it?

  • AlchemistK
  • · Replies 29 ·
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29

Undergrad Why use double slits instead of two coherent lasers for interference

  • fluidistic
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

High School Why does light change direction when its speed changes?

  • johnnyapplese
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate How to represent light as a sinusoidal function

  • hlapolar
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

High School How to build a homemade diffraction grating

  • cragar
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2