GALLERY TWELVE: WAVE OPTICS

TEXTBOOK READING: The basic theoretical underpinning of holography, pp. 310-346.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:
Click on the titles below to open a new window of text to supplement the book, gleaned from a variety of sources, some even written by yours truly. They are presented in the order in which they would be introduced in the class lecture.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO CUT A LASER BEAM IN HALF?The first demonstration of the chapter, if you have a laser pointer try it!

RIPPLE TANK: A snapshot of the patterns in the ripple tank.

HOMEGROWN MOIRE PATTERNS, INTERFERENCE FRINGES, AND OP ART: Print out the downloads, one copy on paper, one on transparency stock and have yourself a ball!

COHERENCE: And interference. Cutting, pasting, typewriting, hand drawing all went into this handout from circa 1980!

THIN FILM INTERFERENCE, THICK DIELECTRIC STACKS: Better illustrations than those in the book, courtesy Melles Griot.

PRACTICAL RESOLUTION: Sometimes lenses are so good that the smallest thing that can be seen with them is on the scale of wavelengths of light.

OPTIMAL PINHOLE SIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY: A discussion of the various formulae quoted in books, and practical solutions.

OPTIMAL PINHOLE SIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATED: Shows with a photographic transparency that the calculated pinhole size in the handout above was definitely optimal!

MICHELSON INTERFEROMETER: A little more detail than in the book on the experiment that proved what they were looking for really did not exist!

GRATING WAVEFRONTS: Print this out and follow the directions under the images and multiple order diffraction becomes clear! (From W. L. Bragg, The Universe of Light)


Chapter Twelve Demonstrations Gallery


Back to Optics Museum Index

Back to Chapter Nine, Color

Forward to Chapter Thirteen, Polarization and Scattering