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Optical theory progressed in the mid-17th century with treatises written by philosopher René Descartes, which explained a variety of optical phenomena including reflection and refraction by assuming that light was emitted by objects which produced it. [26] This differed substantively from the ancient Greek emission theory.
Physical optics is also the name of an approximation commonly used in optics, electrical engineering and applied physics.In this context, it is an intermediate method between geometric optics, which ignores wave effects, and full wave electromagnetism, which is a precise theory.
Some plastics also have more advantageous optical properties than glass, such as better transmission of visible light and greater absorption of ultraviolet light. [6] Some plastics have a greater index of refraction than most types of glass; this is useful in the making of corrective lenses shaped to correct various vision abnormalities such as ...
The field includes the generation and detection of light, linear and nonlinear optical processes, and spectroscopy. Lasers and laser spectroscopy have transformed optical science. Major study in optical physics is also devoted to quantum optics and coherence, and to femtosecond optics. [1]
History of Optics (audio mp3) by Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Emily Winterburn, Curator of Astronomy at the National Maritime Museum (recorded by the BBC
The principal ray or chief ray (sometimes known as the b ray) in an optical system is the meridional ray that starts at an edge of an object and passes through the center of the aperture stop. [5] [8] [7] The distance between the chief ray (or an extension of it for a virtual image) and the optical axis at an image location defines the size of ...
The quantum theory was needed to explain effects even with visual light that Maxwell's classical theory could not (such as spectral lines). Quantum theory In 1900 Max Planck , attempting to explain black-body radiation , suggested that although light was a wave, these waves could gain or lose energy only in finite amounts related to their ...
The resulting perception is also known as vision, sight, or eyesight (adjectives visual, optical, and ocular, respectively). The various physiological components involved in vision are referred to collectively as the visual system , and are the focus of much research in linguistics , psychology , cognitive science , neuroscience , and molecular ...