All Questions
65
questions
1
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55
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Why does the energy (and thus frequency) of a photon entering glass stay constant if some is used up to accelerate electrons and slow down the light?
I'm learning optics and have been told that when light enters a medium (e.g. glass) and slows down the frequency of the light stays constant while it is the wavelength which is reduced. The ...
- 531
1
vote
1
answer
50
views
Huygens Light Theory using Spheres and Miller's recent discovery?
Huygens writes in "Treatise on Light" a theory that propagation of light through the aether can be explained using Spherical waves emanating from every point and they interfere. Miller ...
- 245
0
votes
0
answers
32
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Is there really a relation between light intensity and color saturation?
Going through this article on Wikipedia, under the saturation section, I came across "The purest (most saturated) color is achieved by using just one wavelength at a high intensity, such as in ...
- 1,096
1
vote
1
answer
133
views
Why are diffuse white highlights on matte objects as bright as they are?
The reason we can see the color of objects is light rays undergo scattering in the subsurface of a material, and in their walk in the material lose some wavelengths, and finally exit at a random ...
- 1,096
0
votes
0
answers
23
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Are Transmission values for absorptive light filters proportional to Intensity?
Mostly filter rates are given in percent, but if I imagine that for example 10 photons hit an absorption filter with 50%, molecules are excited there and in the end only 5 get through while the other ...
- 211
1
vote
1
answer
398
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Deriving the focal length of a graded index lens (GRIN)
I want to find a closed expression of the focal length of a graded index since I don't manage to find any on the internet. I already checked this out: Determining the focal length of a gradient index ...
- 344
5
votes
1
answer
279
views
What natural phenomena produce circularly polarized light?
There are a few websites that talk about how certain creatures can produce circularly polarized light in nature (i.e., certain beetles, fireflies, mantis shrimp, etc.), but I have found very few ...
1
vote
5
answers
338
views
How can light produce electric and magnetic field when there are no accelerating charged particles?
If we see light as a wave, especially in vaccum, there is nothing there, no particles, yet light has an electric and magnetic field. How can this be possible?
2
votes
1
answer
255
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Reflectance and transmittance from an anisotropic layer
I am trying to follow a derivation for the reflectance and transmittance of a plane wave from an anisotropic material ($\varepsilon_a,\varepsilon_b,\varepsilon_c$). The derivation uses a $4 \times 4$ ...
- 284
1
vote
0
answers
34
views
Orienting birefringent crystal the right way in an interferometer
I'm working in a lab that involves transforming the polarization state of one beam of light in an interferometer via a Barium Borate (BBO) birefringent crystal. As the polarization state is altered ...
- 343
3
votes
3
answers
228
views
Strange Interference under monochromatic light
I'm coming to you with a strange physical/optical phenomenon I noticed today for which I'm looking for an explanation. I can't seem to find references to this, and it was pretty surprising to see for ...
- 131
4
votes
1
answer
338
views
How does epsilon get into the exponent for light?
In the optics world, when light (assumed as a plane electromagnetic wave having complex wavenumber $k_0$),
$$
E = E_0 \cdot e^{i(kx-\omega t)}
$$
travels from one medium (e.g. vacuum) into another (...
- 1,803
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What happens to light as it enters a denser medium?
I am a first year undergrad student doing optometry (never done any physics before in my life :( ). I got a question asking what happens when light enters a denser medium. I was told that the ...
- 51
2
votes
3
answers
64
views
How could I see the distance light traveled from an airplane?
It was nighttime. I was flying on an airplane. As we were landing we passed over a highway. I saw cars below with their headlights on. I could see that the light from their headlights only lit up a ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
400
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How do we know that human eye reacts on frequency of visible light rather than on some other parameter? [duplicate]
This is a very basic question in optics: why the mathematical language we use corresponds to what we actually see.
There are (at least) two ways to think of a decomposition of a visible light.
One way ...
- 2,226