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Each optical element (surface, interface, mirror, or beam travel) is described by a 2 × 2 ray transfer matrix which operates on a vector describing an incoming light ray to calculate the outgoing ray. Multiplication of the successive matrices thus yields a concise ray transfer matrix describing the entire optical system.
An autocollimator works by projecting an image onto a target mirror and measuring the deflection of the returned image against a scale, either visually or by means of an electronic detector. A visual autocollimator can measure angles as small as 1 arcsecond (4.85 microradians), while an electronic autocollimator can have up to 100 times more ...
A ray drawn from the top of the object to the mirror surface vertex (where the optical axis meets the mirror) will form an angle with the optical axis. The reflected ray has the same angle to the axis, but on the opposite side (See Specular reflection). A second ray can be drawn from the top of the object, parallel to the optical axis. This ray ...
In computer graphics and geography, the angle of incidence is also known as the illumination angle of a surface with a light source, such as the Earth's surface and the Sun. [1] It can also be equivalently described as the angle between the tangent plane of the surface and another plane at right angles to the light rays. [ 2 ]
The sagitta also has uses in physics where it is used, along with chord length, to calculate the radius of curvature of an accelerated particle. This is used especially in bubble chamber experiments where it is used to determine the momenta of decay particles. Likewise historically the sagitta is also utilised as a parameter in the calculation ...
In ray tracing, the vergence can then be pictured as the angle between any two rays. For imaging or beams, the vergence is often described as the angle between the outermost rays in the bundle (marginal rays), at the edge (verge) of a cone of light, and the optical axis. This slope is typically measured in radians. Thus, in this case the ...
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As a pencil of light goes through a flat plane of glass, its half-angle changes to θ 2. Due to Snell's law, the numerical aperture remains the same: NA = n 1 sin θ 1 = n 2 sin θ 2. In optics, the numerical aperture (NA) of an optical system is a dimensionless number that characterizes the range of angles over which the system can accept or ...