Ray tracing

[Darryl Meister]

Any OptiBoarders out there in the Ophthalmic Optics forum interested in learning how to do graphical ray tracing of thin lenses? (That is, learning how to calculate image size and position with sketches and stuff.)

Best regards,
Darryl

[Maria]

If you wanted to do tracing a ray through a prism using calculations and small words I'd be interested. But I can't learn anything else until after next Tuesday.

[Sara]

Hi Darryl,
Yes I am interested,would it be possible for you to email me.
Thanks,
Sara

[Jo]

Yes, I'd be interested. Are you volunteering yourself as teacher?

[Jackie L]

sign me up!

[haya]

Definitely, Darryl.

I don't know why i didn't think of it first! U may just be inundated with inane questions though by the likes of a totally lacking in knowledge fledgling like myself!
Thanks, haya

[Corey Nicholls]

Darryl,

I was taught to calculate it (I may not remember how right now), but I would be interested to see how you do it graphically.

Corey :cool:

[Suzy W]

Yes, I would be interested. But, like Maria was saying, simple words for the likes of me

Suzy

[Darryl Meister]

Well, it sounds like there are enough interested OptiBoarders out there... I'll plan on creating a web page that goes through basic ray tracing of thin lenses, including the formulas. (I'll throw in a prism example for Maria, as well.) If everyone finds the information valuable, perhaps we could move on to mirrors and lens surfaces and such.

We can discuss the material here in the forum, and I'll post a link in a fews days once I've made the web page.

Best regards,
Darryl

[JRS]

Sounds like fun Darryl.
I remember when I was taking one of my finals (Assoc. Degree) they made us trace using concave and convex mirrors - even had to follow it through an aquarium full of water. Bring out the calculators!

[Darryl Meister]

Hi JR,

Great to see the interest! I was wondering whether a few opticians from this country were actually into this stuff?!? ;) Given the ratio of US OptiBoarders to the rest of the World, we seem to have a relatively small showing so far!

I should have the web site posted by this weekend. The graphics in particular will take a bit.

Best regards,
Darryl

[chip anderson]

Sign me up and make sure that the course is designed for the mathematicly ignorant and incompent.

Chip

[Darryl Meister]

Well, I've gone a little overboard, so this is taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. I'm going to try to include some basic optics stuff, as well as the ray tracing. I should have at least part of the site (and certainly the ray tracing stuff) up within the next few days.

Best regards,
Darryl

[Ney Rojas-Mejia]

Great idea! Sign me up. This is my first post, let's see how it goes... By the way, I really enjoy this site. You guy's are super!

[Darryl Meister]

Glad to have you on board, Ney!

Best regards,
Darryl

[Laurie]

Hi Darryl,

As usual, you're sharing the "best of you". : ) Thanks.

count me in...I haven't touched Ray Tracing in a long time.

It will be fun (and not TOO painful, right?)

Laurie

[Jim G]

Dan is writing a treatise on this; I believe you and he have talked as he's referenced you a couple times. He's currently at 21 pages and still writing...and, you're gonna make it so Maria and I can understand it? Good luck.

[Darryl Meister]

Hi Jim -- Well, I haven't spoken to Dan about ray tracing recently -- just some VCA and ANSI stuff -- so he is probably referencing my workbook, Introduction to Ophthalmic Optics.

I've almost finished the ray tracing module, which I should have online late tonight. This part does assume prior knowledge of some basic optics, but it is pretty basic stuff. The ray tracing module will generally cover how to draw objects and images through spherical lenses. The good news is that I'm also working on a basic optics module as well, though, which should bring those up to speed who haven't been exposed to basic optics in a while. Consequently, OptiBoarders will be able to bring themselves up to speed with this other module (once it's finished) before looking at the ray tracing module.

If people want some more advanced stuff, I might get into more detail in future modules. I have already planned a short module on the basic properties of light, basic visual optics, etcetera. These will be available down the road if this site piques enough interest.

By the way, I highly recommend using Internet Explorer for my site. Earlier versions of Netscape are kind of quirky about they interpret the XHTML code I'm writing the site in.

Best regards,
Darryl

[Jim G]

Great stuff! I'm looking forward to reading all of your projects including the basics. Be interesting to see how much I've forgotten.