AR
CN
DEN
EN
FR
GER
ITA
POR
RUS
SPA
Posted on: Friday, April 29th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Besides explaining rainbows, why model light as a wave? The particle model of light is usually drawn with a particle traveling as a ray. Just by staring at a candle or light bulb however, we know that light travels in all directions. It would be impossible to draw out infinite rays traveling in all directions, […]
Read morePosted on: Friday, April 15th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
In “What is Light?”, we described light as both a wave and a particle under the conditions of the wave-particle duality. In the previous posts, we have mostly modeled light as a ray when discussing reflection and refraction. Only when we talk about diffraction and wavelength do we mention the wave property of light. While […]
Read morePosted on: Monday, April 4th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Besides lenses and mirrors, prisms are another group of common optical elements. White light that enters a prism leaves as many different colors due to the different refractive indexes of each color’s wavelength (a topic that will be covered in further depth in the next post). Besides refracting white light, prisms have another useful property […]
Read morePosted on: Monday, March 21st, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
In the previous post, we looked at how changing the focal lengths produced different images (and virtual images) for SINGLE lenses. Sometimes, however, a system of lenses is needed to produce a desired image. A system is composed of two or more lenses assembled together. A good example of a system is the eyepiece of […]
Read morePosted on: Saturday, March 5th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Focal length is important not just in terms of positive and negative. For convex lenses, different focal lengths can have drastically different images. If an object (u) is at a distance greater than two times its focal length (2f), then its image focal length (v) is between f and 2f (written as f < v […]
Read morePosted on: Friday, February 18th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
The properties of light evident in nature are utilized by humans through instruments such as lenses and mirrors. While one might think that glass is the main material used to make lenses, resin has become the most common material due to its lightness yet hardness (resistance to scratching). Lenses refract light while mirrors reflect light. […]
Read morePosted on: Friday, February 4th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Why does a pencil look like it is snapped in half when partially placed in a container of water? The short answer is refraction. A more detailed explanation is that the rays of light bends when they pass from one medium to another. This bending of light from air to water produces a virtual image […]
Read morePosted on: Monday, January 24th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
A total solar eclipse is perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a shadow. When the moon is positioned between the earth and the sun, the moon’s shadow is cast onto the earth forming an outer shadow experiencing a partial eclipse and an inner shadow experiencing a total eclipse. A Total Solar Eclipse. [1] […]
Read morePosted on: Monday, January 10th, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Light that the human eye can see is just a small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. We use wavelength (λ), measured in nanometers (nm) or micrometers (1 μm = 1000 nm), to distinguish and describe the types of light. Visible light lies in the range of 380 nm to 780 nm with ultraviolet light being […]
Read morePosted on: Monday, January 3rd, 2022 In: Learning Optics with Austin
Optics is the study of light. The root of the word “opt” relates to the eye and vision, while the suffix “ics” refers to a science or discipline. [1] With that enLIGHTenment, a discussion about optics is often a discussion about light, its behaviors, and its properties. One common starting point is to ask “What […]
Read more