Optics Forum

Threads

Undergrad How do we measure the frequency of light?

  • lenfromkits
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11

High School Why does a camera focus sharpest at 10 m when photographing a mirror image from 5 m away?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Why Does Refraction Cause an Elliptical Sun?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Contradictory: Sky blue and sunset red?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Why do free electrons in metals absorb and emit photons?

  • Pranav Jha
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Could photons be captured and reproduced to create a magic window?

  • JS85
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Graduate Do Photons Really Possess Mass?

  • nvrmnd
  • · Replies 15 ·
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15

Undergrad Why is light reflected off road and water surfaces horizontally polarised?

  • jsmith613
  • · Replies 17 ·
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17

Graduate Computing sound travel-time with large speed variations using ray model

  • huangchao
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Why is glass transparent? More details below.

  • LogicalAcid
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Capillary action for non-polar substances?

  • Archosaur
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Does Carrying an Umbrella Increase Your Chances of Being Struck by Lightning?

  • Loren Booda
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

High School Magnification; What's focal point

  • CuteWolf
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Why is part of a person's face transparent in a still photo?

  • fawk3s
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Graduate Photon momentum transfer between mirrors in relative motion

  • Sakha
  • · Replies 15 ·
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15

Undergrad About diffraction (conceptual problem)

  • imvaibhav
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Why does a cut diamond look shinier than a glass block with the same light rays?

  • Acuben
  • · Replies 12 ·
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12

Undergrad Are there any chemical reactions that can generate radio waves?

  • WarpedWatch
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Can light be reflected parallel to the surface it strikes?

  • geordief
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Uses of diffraction gratings outside the laboratory

  • thamwenyin
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Squinting at light bulbs, what are those lines?

  • Nienstien
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Is there an invisible, solid material with the refractive index of air?

  • Archosaur
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Why is there a gap at the start of reflected light?

  • thamwenyin
  • · Replies 29 ·
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29

High School What are paraxial rays?

  • Ashu2912
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Variation of eikonal (phase) set to zero

  • neelakash
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Why measure angle of incidence relative to the normal, not the surface

  • Alche
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Waves and Phases: Understanding 90 and 180 Degrees Out of Phase

  • jsmith613
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School When two Lasers meet what happens

  • thunkit
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Is there such thing as infinite magnitude of velocity?

  • ikos9lives
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad How Does Bisecting a Lens Affect Its Focal Length?

  • Alche
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad How to measure the Intensity of Light?

  • HungryChemist
  • · Replies 31 ·
2
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31

Graduate Can photons be accelated or do they always travel at one speed (speed of light)?

  • linux kid
  • · Replies 25 ·
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25

High School What are the diffraction plane and image plane in optics?

  • j-lee00
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Superposition principle in arbitrary medium

  • Heirot
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Undergrad Why does light reflect only at surfaces and not internal atomic planes?

  • jeebs
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

High School What is the actual cause of refraction?

  • jeebs
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Can fiber optics scatter sunlight throughout a room for plants?

  • shadowofman
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

Graduate Spatial distortion in SHG from BBO crystal with fs laser

  • slap babies
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Collimate Light from Mercury Arc Bulb for 5cm Circular Beam

  • sbcbmx112
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Graduate Applying Huygens's principle to light propagation

  • m.e.t.a.
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Does white light have a definite wavelength?

  • FeDeX_LaTeX
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Can We Store Lightning Energy?

  • reinaldo
  • · Replies 34 ·
2
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34

Undergrad How to calculate laser thrust?

  • CosmicVoyager
  • · Replies 17 ·
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17

Undergrad Can a Tower Emit Light by Changing its Frequency to Match Visible Light?

  • x+iy
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Polarization of Electromagnetic Waves: A Quantum Perspective

  • fluidistic
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

High School Why does the direction of light change during refraction if the speed

  • rahuljayanthb
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad In the Airy disk equation, is lambda the wavelength in medium or vacuum?

  • mssm22
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

High School How can a thin mirror show such vast depths?

  • banerjeerupak
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Undergrad How Effective Is a Fresnel Lens in Transporting Light Through Fiber Optics?

  • Fritzo130
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Tracing the Light Path of a Green Laser Pointer

  • Frannas
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Radius of curvature for ultrasonic reflector at 50 kHz

  • SFB
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Why does light reflect differently from flat and curved surfaces?

  • physicoo
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Optical Detection of Earth's Coriolis Force?

  • Geremia
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

High School Magnitude and Light brightness question

  • LoveKnowledge
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School What is the 'path difference' in waves

  • Ichijou Maeve
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate What is the difference between a quantum and photon?

  • Florence.
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Mirror phenomenon after a shower

  • hl_world
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Why is phase difference small at low resonance?

  • znatale
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate How Does Light Behave Before Passing Through a Slit in Diffraction Experiments?

  • Thormen
  • · Replies 9 ·
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9

Undergrad Wave interference in a car at speed

  • mkarger
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

High School Can a non-physical object be visible if light passes through it?

  • General_Sax
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Undergrad Measuring Light Output - Howdy Yall

  • drguitarum200
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

Undergrad Need ideas for solar/atmospheric experiment

  • lalligagger
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

High School What is the difference between magnitude and direction?

  • OftenConfused
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Does a thin rod reflect radio waves smaller than its length?

  • iewgnem
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Graduate Sending information on light waves through air instead of fiber

  • NetMage
  • · Replies 25 ·
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25

High School What would a 5.8GHz laser look like for radio links?

  • ctech4285
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Why is wave diffraction around object better at longer wavelength?

  • etamorphmagus
  • · Replies 16 ·
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16

Undergrad Derivation of Law of Refraction

  • FeDeX_LaTeX
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Practical Report For Investigation to flight (wind tunnel)?

  • Physics Time
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate When emitting a photon, does the body exert an opposite force?

  • Barwick
  • · Replies 19 ·
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19

Graduate Finding complex refractive index from reflectivity at one angle

  • Gobil
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad Amplitude will change after unpolarised wave passes through a polariod

  • tipsyteong
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Traveling at the speed of light and time travel?

  • Dieterich
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Undergrad Why concave reflectors produce higher pressure than flat reflectors

  • SFB
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Undergrad Once to light never back again

  • WCOLtd
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Energy loss when electromagnetic waves reflect from metal surfaces

  • H_man
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Graduate Is a refrigeration laser thermodynamically possible?

  • pcysics
  • · Replies 28 ·
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28

Undergrad Circular motion - Force perpendicular to velocity does not change magnitude.

  • dreamLord
  • · Replies 10 ·
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10

Graduate Snell's law with complex n, interpret complex angle?

  • Cruikshank
  • · Replies 2 ·
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2

Graduate Different treatment of E and B field in Brewster angle derivation

  • Heirot
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Undergrad How come there is visible light in Uv lights?

  • abotiz
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Constructive interference - energy non-conservation?

  • htg
  • · Replies 20 ·
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20

High School How does refraction of light take place?

  • Parbat
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

Undergrad Questions regarding the constant of light and photons

  • snackster17
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

Undergrad How does the airborne laser testbed work and why is it airborne?

  • v_pino
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Undergrad Why do glass and crsytals absorb light?

  • Biologik
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

High School Is there a shortcut for finding theta4 using Snell's Law when theta2 is known?

  • glyon
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7

Graduate Looking backwards through a holographic diffuser

  • WCarton
  • · Replies 6 ·
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6

Undergrad Do pilots age slower due to time dilation at aircraft speeds?

  • kadAfi
  • · Replies 14 ·
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14

Undergrad Does the Doppler Effect Differ Between Sound and Light?

  • cscott
  • · Replies 13 ·
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13

Undergrad How do I asses the % of light transmission that passes through glass

  • johnstar
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

Undergrad What Does "Opaque" Mean in Metrology?

  • WaltLankor
  • · Replies 5 ·
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5

Graduate Do Perfectly Collimated and Monochromatic Beams Show Interference Fringes?

  • Gobil
  • · Replies 3 ·
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3

Graduate Orthogonality of time dependent vector derivatives of constant magnitude

  • lordkelvin
  • · Replies 4 ·
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4

Graduate What Is the Mass of Sunlight in a Thought Experiment?

  • RenasontsMan
  • · Replies 15 ·
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15

Undergrad Furthest distance a light source can be seen

  • Insanity
  • · Replies 8 ·
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8

Undergrad If infared energy makes things hotter, why do microwaves use radio waves?

  • Biologik
  • · Replies 11 ·
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11

High School Why can't we feel certain kinds of waves?

  • Biologik
  • · Replies 1 ·
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1

Velovity of a light beam in an arc

  • hedhtr
  • · Replies 7 ·
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7