Ray Optics Simulator

31 points by spectaclepiece 2 years ago | 8 comments

6yyyyyy 2 years ago |

Reminds me of this:

https://benedikt-bitterli.me/tantalum/tantalum.html

pasabagi 2 years ago |

Does anybody know of a good reference text that can teach you the basics of optics? I've been messing around making little projectors out of old camera lenses and cheap lenses from ali express, and I've had some success, but I have basically had to design everything so I can get all the lenses in the right place by moving them around, because I don't really understand the principles.

buescher 2 years ago | |

For hobbyists:

The old Edmund Scientific books if you can find them. They didn’t bother with isbn numbers so now that they no longer sell them it’s not easy. Wildly out of date in some ways but good basic explanations of geometric optics and its applications.

Gordon McComb’s Laser Cookbook or the ray gun book. They are basically the same book, one just looks more embarrassing. Also now out of date, but not terribly.

There are a few good hobbyist-level books on holography but I don’t have names at hand.

buescher 2 years ago | | |

Here's some Edmund application material - scroll down for the archive of old Edmund Scientific literature. I think "Graphical Ray Tracing" is what you are looking for. All About Telescopes also has lots of information on basic optical calculations and measurements. https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/technical-lite...

itishappy 2 years ago | |

Optics - Eugene Hecht

Undergraduate level reference text that I see in almost every optical engineer's office. It's dense, but it's thorough.

https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5054148/mod_resou...

spectaclepiece 2 years ago |

Found this when looking for ways to simulate light paths. Thought it's kind of neat and the kind of thing usually appreciated by the HN crowd.

popcalc 2 years ago | |

Very very very cool! The UX is intuitive.

NKosmatos 2 years ago |

Thanks for this and also for the other comment! I had seen these pages somewhere in the past but couldn't find them again. In my mind it was titled light simulation and that's why it didn't appear in the search.