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Geometrical optics. Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances. The simplifying assumptions of geometrical optics include that light rays:
In optics, a ray is an idealized geometrical model of light or other electromagnetic radiation, obtained by choosing a curve that is perpendicular to the wavefronts of the actual light, and that points in the direction of energy flow. [1][2] Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light ...
In Euclidean geometry two rays with a common endpoint form an angle. [14] The definition of a ray depends upon the notion of betweenness for points on a line. It follows that rays exist only for geometries for which this notion exists, typically Euclidean geometry or affine geometry over an ordered field.
Half-space (geometry) In geometry, a half-space is either of the two parts into which a plane divides the three-dimensional Euclidean space. If the space is two-dimensional, then a half-space is called a half-plane (open or closed). A half-space in a one-dimensional space is called a half-line or ray. More generally, a half-space is either of ...
Ray tracing (physics) In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, change direction, or reflect off surfaces, complicating analysis.
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. [1] Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation, and other forms of ...
Fermat's principle, also known as the principle of least time, is the link between ray optics and wave optics. Fermat's principle states that the path taken by a ray between two given points is the path that can be traveled in the least time. First proposed by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1662, as a means of explaining the ...
In physics, Hamilton's principle states that the evolution of a system ((), …, ()) described by generalized coordinates between two specified states at two specified parameters σ A and σ B is a stationary point (a point where the variation is zero) of the action functional, or = (,,, ˙,, ˙,) = where ˙ = / and is the Lagrangian.