Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain how the human eye focuses distant light on the retina Explain the different contributions of refractive index and…

Below are some representative answers to the ‘practice questions’ that appear within any chapters where we need to learn to apply some maths. They’re designed to help you focus your…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain how microwaves heat food using interference Explain how we can use chocolate to measure the speed of light…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain how a pinhole produces an image Create your own camera obscura Introduction As we discussed very briefly in…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain the difference between polarised and unpolarised light Explain the process of polarisation by transmission Explain the process of…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Create a demonstration of polarisation by scattering Explain how polarisation by scattering works Introduction As a brief recap, in…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Define a wavefront aberration Explain how aberrations can affect the resultant image Explain a Zernike polynomial Understand how aberrometers…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain what interference is and how it can be used to measure distances Explain what OCT stands for Explain…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain why light can disperse through water if a mirror is introduced Explain dispersion Introduction Looking back over the…

Objectives After working through this chapter, you should be able to: Explain what an ‘optical instrument’ is Explain how cameras work Explain how Galilean, Keplerian and reflecting telescopes work Explain…