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  2. Geometrical optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrical_optics

    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: may ...

  3. Ray (optics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_(optics)

    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 ...

  4. Category:Geometrical optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Geometrical_optics

    Category. : Geometrical optics. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geometric optics. Geometrical optics deals with rays and their propagation in media.

  5. Optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optics

    The most common of these, geometric optics, treats light as a collection of rays that travel in straight lines and bend when they pass through or reflect from surfaces. Physical optics is a more comprehensive model of light, which includes wave effects such as diffraction and interference that cannot be accounted for in geometric optics ...

  6. Hamiltonian optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamiltonian_optics

    Hamilton's principle. In physics, Hamilton's principle states that the evolution of a system described by generalized coordinates between two specified states at two specified parameters σA and σB is a stationary point (a point where the variation is zero) of the action functional, or where and is the Lagrangian.

  7. Principles of Optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Optics

    Principles of Optics. Principles of Optics, colloquially known as Born and Wolf, is an optics textbook written by Max Born and Emil Wolf that was initially published in 1959 by Pergamon Press. [1] After going through six editions with Pergamon Press, the book was transferred to Cambridge University Press who issued an expanded seventh edition ...

  8. Alhazen's problem - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhazen's_problem

    Alhazen's problem, also known as Alhazen's billiard problem, is a mathematical problem in geometrical optics first formulated by Ptolemy in 150 AD. [1] It is named for the 11th-century Arab mathematician Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) who presented a geometric solution in his Book of Optics. The algebraic solution involves quartic equations and was ...

  9. Eikonal equation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eikonal_equation

    In geometric optics, the eikonal equation describes the phase fronts of waves. Under reasonable hypothesis on the "initial" data, the eikonal equation admits a local solution, but a global smooth solution (e.g. a solution for all time in the geometrical optics case) is not possible. The reason is that caustics may develop. In the geometrical ...