Questions tagged [geometric-optics]
The subfield of optics in which light propagation is approximated in terms of rays. It mainly includes reflection and refraction on surfaces.
1,482 questions
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Polarization of Light from a Surface at an Angle [closed]
I have this problem from Bennett Principles of Physical Optics $3.65$ "A photographer wishes to use a linear polarizer in front of the camera lens to reduce glare from a surface with normal ...
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How to numerically calculate laser beam quality (like β-factor, M2-factor...) fast and accurate? [closed]
ray tracing does not account for diffraction. angular spectrum propagation is too computationally expensive. Is there an algorithm that considers both diffraction and aberrations without being too ...
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Ray Optics— Number of Images proofs
I realise that formulae like n=360°/theta (-1) is based on the lemma type that each sector of theta degrees, starting from the sector MOM' (sector between mirrors) corresponding to exactly 1 image, ...
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Why do distant objects appear blurry in magnifying lens but not in spectacles(for farsighted people)?
Assumption for eye glasses: If we try to see objects from a converging lens(eye glasses) located just in front of the eye, that are farther than the focus(between f and 2f) of the eye glasses, we can ...
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Can a person read with spectacles a book which is located farther than its focus?
I was solving a question but I couldn't understand a concept of it. A professor reads a greeting card received on his 50th birthday with +2.5 D glasses keeping the card 25 cm away. Ten years later, ...
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Would a microscope behave as a telescope if we brought the objective lens closer to the eye piece?
I believe there are two ways to transform a compound microscope to a telescope. Either you bring the the objective lens closer to the eyepiece(what i think) or you increase the focal length(what i ...
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How can a light refract and reflect at the same time? [duplicate]
When light enters from environment to water, some of the light is reflected and rest is refracted in water. Why does this refraction occur? As water is a transparent medium, therefore water should ...
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Why doesn't concave mirror form virtual image at infinity when object is placed at focus?
If the object is placed at the focus of the concave mirror (assume very small aperture) we know that the rays will converge at the focus and be parallel to each other. However if we produce these ...
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Ray optics, how to observe a virtual image, ray diagram
The ball infront of the mirror is the object and the virtual image is formed behind it and the purple colored convex lens in our eye lens , my doubt is , is this how should we keep the eye in order to ...
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Modulation transfer function (MTF) of a Cassegrain type telescope
I would have a question regarding the modulation transfer function (MTF) of Cassegrain telescopes. For circular apertures there is a simple formula for the diffraction MTF $$ MTF = \frac{2}{\pi}[\...
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Eikonal equation as a Hamilton-Jacobi equation
In the geometrical optic limit, light rays can be seen as characteristics of the solutions of the eikonal equation: $$|\nabla L|^2=n^2(x)$$ where $n(x)=c/v(x)$ is the refraction index. On the other ...
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Vision with pupils obstructed at the center
Assume that a person puts special contact lenses on both of his eyes, centered at the pupils, such that each of those contact lenses have an opaque center with diameter 1mm, while the typical pupil ...
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Should convolution between point spread function & geometrical prediction of image be carried out before or after magnifying one of the two functions?
In "Introduction to Fourier optics" by Goodman, on page 114 it states that for a diffraction limited imaging system: The ideal image produced by a diffraction-limited optical system (i.e. a ...
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Why diffraction at $N$ slit only depends on the $\beta$?
I actually wanted to throw the question only, but in the field of optics, different books derive the same relation in different ways with different assumptions and different symbols. So before asking ...
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Recommendations for (classical) Optics textbook [duplicate]
Im looking to deepen my understanding in classical optics, mainly geometrical optics. In my QM & Electrodynamics courses, I really liked Landau&Lifshitz books (even though they are rather ...
