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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 ...
A light ray is a line or curve that is perpendicular to the light's wavefronts (and is therefore collinear with the wave vector). A slightly more rigorous definition of a light ray follows from Fermat's principle, which states that the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time. [1]
A pencil-beam radar A moving or sweeping pencil-beam radar. In optics, a pencil or pencil of rays, also known as a pencil beam or narrow beam, is a geometric construct (pencil of half-lines) used to describe a beam or portion of a beam of electromagnetic radiation or charged particles, typically in the form of a cone or cylinder.
A system is focal if an object ray parallel to the axis is conjugate to an image ray that intersects the optical axis. The intersection of the image ray with the optical axis is the focal point F ′ in image space. Focal systems also have an axial object point F such that any ray through F is conjugate to an image ray parallel to the optical axis.
The term "line" typically presumes that the light by which the observed object is seen travels as a straight ray, which is sometimes not the case as light can take a curved/angulated path when reflected from a mirror, [5] refracted by a lens or density changes in the traversed media, or deflected by a gravitational field. Fields of study ...
Bottom: The formation of a real image using a concave mirror. In both diagrams, f is the focal point, O is the object, and I is the image. Solid blue lines indicate light rays. It can be seen that the image is formed by actual light rays and thus can form a visible image on a screen placed at the position of the image.
A real image is the collection of focus points made by converging rays, while a virtual image is the collection of focus points made by backward extensions of diverging rays. In other words, a virtual image is found by tracing real rays that emerge from an optical device ( lens , mirror , or some combination) backward to perceived or apparent ...
The set of rays in a light field can be parameterized in a variety of ways. The most common is the two-plane parameterization. While this parameterization cannot represent all rays, for example rays parallel to the two planes if the planes are parallel to each other, it relates closely to the analytic geometry of perspective