Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An optical instrument is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, telescopes, and cameras. [1] [2]
The wavelength of visible light waves varies between 400 and 700 nm, but the term "light" is also often applied to infrared (0.7–300 μm) and ultraviolet radiation (10–400 nm). The wave model can be used to make predictions about how an optical system will behave without requiring an explanation of what is "waving" in what medium.
The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in their present compound form in the 17th century.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). The field of microscopy (optical microscopy) dates back to at least the 17th-century.Earlier microscopes, single lens magnifying glasses with limited magnification, date at least as far back as the wide spread use of lenses in eyeglasses in the 13th century [2] but more advanced compound microscopes first appeared in Europe around 1620 [3] [4] The ...
The electromagnetic waves in each of these bands have different characteristics, such as how they are produced, how they interact with matter, and their practical applications. Radio waves, at the low-frequency end of the spectrum, have the lowest photon energy and the longest wavelengths—thousands of kilometers, or more.
Without oil, light waves reflect off the slide specimen through the glass cover slip, through the air, and into the microscope lens (see the colored figure to the right). Unless a wave comes out at a 90-degree angle, it bends when it hits a new substance, the amount of bend depending on the angle. This distorts the image.
A beam of convergent (or divergent) light is known to be a linear superposition of many plane waves over a cone of solid angles. The raytracing of Figure 1 illustrates the basic concept of conoscopy : transformation of a directional distribution of rays of light in the front focal plane into a lateral distribution ( directions image ) appearing ...
Figure 1. The light path through a Michelson interferometer.The two light rays with a common source combine at the half-silvered mirror to reach the detector. They may either interfere constructively (strengthening in intensity) if their light waves arrive in phase, or interfere destructively (weakening in intensity) if they arrive out of phase, depending on the exact distances between the ...