All Questions
Tagged with optics geometric-optics
1,082
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Luneburg lens in a medium
A Luneburg lens is a spherical lens with a gradient refractive index. It has the interesting property that light coming from focal length of infinity will be focused on the surface of the lens.
The ...
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How will Newton's rings look using a Concave-convex lens?
I want to examine lenses that are concave-convex (one for each side) using the Newton's rings method.
I'm trying to build the theoretical model for this, but I'm quite sure that the rays of light will ...
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answer
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Calculating mirror size for a teleprompter
I'm trying to calculate the required size of a mirror for a teleprompter application. The goal is to use the smallest possible mirror while still capturing the full image.
It's a straightforward setup,...
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Direction of propagation of extraordinary wave inside a birefringent medium
I am reading Optics by Ajoy Ghatak, in which the author explains the phenomenon of double refraction in a calcite crystal using Huygens' principle. My query is in the analysis of the case of normal ...
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3x3 beam transfer matrix tilt angle transformation [closed]
I'm trying to use the formalism from 'Generalized beam matrices. III. Application to
diffraction analysis' and 'Generalized beam matrices: Gaussian beam propagation in misaligned complex optical ...
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Why aren't all objects and their images same in size?
Suppose there is an object in front of a convex lens and we know that the light rays from each point on the surface of object will converge at a different point and form an image. So that means that ...
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1
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Directionality of laser light in vacuum [duplicate]
It is well-known that laser light is directional because of coherence from stimulated emission. This means that the light is emitted ONLY in the direction of propagation, and not in any type of ...
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2
answers
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Eye Floaters Optics
Eye floaters are these annoying objects floating in someones eye, usually seen by someone experiencing them as squiggly lines and dots buzzing around, either dark or partially transparent (I ...
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What does the optical Hamiltonian mean?
So I was trying to demonstrate Snell's law with Hamilton's equations, and when I got the Hamiltonian:
$$H = -\sqrt{n^2-p_{1}^2-p_{2}^2}.$$
I had a question about what this Hamiltonian indicates. I ...
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Using multiple sources in Zemax mixed mode
In Ansys Zemax OpticStudio [I'm using 2023 R1.00 Pro (11)] sequential mode, the Multi-Configuration Editor can be used to make multiple paths for rays to trace through after the rays depart from a ...
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2
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Intuitively understanding virtual images in a multi-(thin)lens system
Let's say there is a multi-lens system of a converging lens (ex. a biconvex) and then a diverging lens with an object on the left of the system. And furthermore, let's say that due to the specific ...
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Is there ways to find the most efficient geometrical structure for sunlight concentration? [closed]
we are researching for the most efficient geometrical structure of a concentrator. What we mean by 'most efficient' is that we are trying to get the most sunlight while sun is up. We are not trying to ...
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Connect gaussian beam waist to ABDC matrix coefficient in bow-tie cavity
As part of my master thesis, my task is to find the optimal parameters to set-up a bow-tie optical parametric oscillator (OPO) for squeezed states generation. I'm currently looking at the possible ...
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How to Calculate Focal Length when in another medium?
How do you calculate the focal length of a lens when it is placed into another medium, if I only have the focal length of a lens in the air? I understand that the lensmaker's equation should be used, ...
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What exactly happens to a light ray that is incident on the vertex of 2 mirrors inclined at some angle
So the question I had was that if we have two mirrors as shown in the diagram, what exactly occurs to the light ray that is incident on the vertex of the mirror? If we would like to construct the ...
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How to determine if an observer can see an object with multiple mirrors?
How do I determine if an observer can see an object with multiple mirrors? I came across this image online and I am wondering if the observer (point O) see the object (point A)
My attempt:
I tried ...
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What is the apparent location of a real image formed by a lens? [duplicate]
Let's say I place a tennis ball 1 m in front of a plane mirror. The mirror will form a virtual image of the tennis ball, and if I look in the mirror, it appears to me that there is a tennis ball ...
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Best High Zoom Lens Configurations [closed]
Just wondering which lens configurations are usually best or most optimal for achieving high zoom in the smallest space or with fewest lenses.
E.g Let's say we want to achieve a 1000x magnification. ...
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What is a convex-concave lens?
I came across this term while studying for optics, and I'm unsure as to what this means. My thinking is that it might be a meniscus lens, but the text separately give two different models for each ...
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How does the mirror know what’s behind the paper?
I found this on social media. Although it was posted for fun, this is a valid question: How does the mirror know what’s behind the paper?
Show me how light reflected from the egg reaches the mirror.
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Spherical aberration of lens
Why is spherical aberration absent in an image formed by a plano-convex lens on its principal axis? Will it be present in other types of lenses?
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Can the physics behind AR glasses be entirely modeled by geometric optics?
If I wanted to get the image of a small LED screen to be reflected onto the lens of a pair of glasses, would an understanding of geometric optics be sufficient to model this scenario?
I ask this ...
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2
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Why total reflection happens at only 1 angle?
The critical angle can be intuitively understood by Snell's law.If the incident medium has a bigger diffraction index than the refracted medium then according to Snell's law the refracted ray will be ...
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How do parallel reflected rays meet to form image at infinity? If they never meet then how is image formed?
In my textbooks it is written that when an object is kept at focus, its image is formed at infinity and is real. But how is this possible because parallel lines never meet and it is necessary for rays ...
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Formula for power of a lens submerged in a medium
I was always of the opinion that the power of a lens would invariably be the reciprocal of its focal length, irrespective of the medium surrounding it. However, I ran into a slightly different formula ...
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1
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182
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Is there a way to determine whether what I see is a source of light, a real image, or a virtual image?
Let's suppose you are in a dark room and see something resembling a firefly. The light it emits is so dim that nothing else is visible. You're told that it's either a real source of light or an image ...
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Is there a way to calculate the angle between the refracted and reflected rays given the refractive index?
Is there a way to calculate the refracted and reflected rays? I know we use Snell's law to calculate the refracted rays, but is there a formula to calculate the angle of the reflected rays, or does it ...
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Apparent position of object in bowl of water
Say you have a bowl of water and you keep an object in it. What would the apparent position of an object inside the bowl from the position of an outside observer? Will the curvature of the spherical ...
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Siemens Star Target with black ring - What's causing it?
I am designing an imaging system with should create an image from focal plane to focal plane (in contrast to infinity to focal plane).
The system features a lens with tunable focal length.
Starting ...
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Why do the solutions to the parabola in Bessel's formula gives the distances where sharp image is formed?
I had an optics lab in the previous week where we tried to measure the focal length of a lens using Bessel's method. My question is about this method.
So, in order to obtain Bessel's formula we do the ...
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