Optics

Optics is the science of light. If you know nothing about optics, this page (and those linked to
it) will explain the basic facts needed to understand how mirages, green flashes, and other
refraction phenomena work. A little background is required, so please be patient.

Traditionally, optics is divided into two main areas: geometrical optics, which deals with how
light moves and where it goes; and physical optics, which deals with the nature of light itself
(which we don't need to get into here) and with the interaction between light and matter
(which we will need to use a little bit).

There are also several related fields, like vision, and the science of color. One of these
is atmospheric optics, which deals with how light interacts with our atmosphere. Mirages and
green flashes are part of atmospheric optics; but you need to understand some basic optics
first, before you can understand what air does to light.

Two kinds of optical phenomena are involved in green flashes and mirages:

 atmospheric refraction
 atmospheric transmission

Refraction belongs to geometrical optics; transmission belongs to physical optics. Let's look at
both of these fields.

Geometrical Optics
Reversibility.
People often talk about a “line of sight” between two points. Here are two observers, located
at points A and B:

If A can see B, then B can see A along the same line of sight, but in the opposite direction.
Most people are aware that the line of sight is the same for both observers; light passes from A
to B along the same path as from B to A.

Name: Ligan, Vince B. OPTICS and SOUNDS Rating:

BSAMT/ 3rd Year / Section 2 MS. JOHANNAH ROSE CAMIT Date: January 23, 2018
We say the light is reversible. Sometimes it is handy to trace the path of the light away from an
observer, even though the light is actually moving toward the observer. Reversibility makes this
process valid.
Rectilinear propagation.
I drew a straight line between A and B in the drawing above, and people usually think of lines of
sight as being straight lines. A basic idea behind geometrical optics is that “light travels in straight
lines”; but there is a catch to this statement. Light only travels in straight lines in a perfectly
uniform medium, like a vacuum. But real transparent materials, such as air, water, and glass,
always have small internal variations in their optical properties that bend the path of the light. So
light doesn't quite travel in straight lines in real materials.
Particularly, light doesn't travel in straight lines in air, because air isn't uniform: its density varies
from place to place, especially at different heights. The variations in density with height are very
important in atmospheric refraction, because they make light travel along curved paths, not
straight lines, in air.
Rays and beams.
There is another catch to the “straight lines” statement. Lines are a geometric idealization; they
have no width. These straight or curved “lines” along which light moves are usually called “rays”
in optics. Like the lines of geometry, they are a convenient fiction: there really is no such thing as
a “ray of light.” Instead, what exists in the real world is a beam of light; and beams have width.
Right away, I should caution you that what I call a beam of light may not be what you call a beam
of light. You probably think of something like a searchlight beam, all lit up and plainly visible. But
that searchlight beam is only visible because of light that is scattered out of the actual beam. So
what you see is not the beam itself, but the path of the beam, made visible by light that is being
scattered out of it toward your eye. If the beam were traveling through a vacuum, instead of
through polluted urban air, it would be quite invisible. So, remember: I'm talking about invisible
beams.
Now, what's the relation between rays and beams? Well, beams are real, and rays are something
we imagine. You can think of a ray as the center line of a narrow beam, if you like.
As Mascart says, at the start of the Preface to his great textbook (Paris, 1889) on optics:
A first glance seems to show that, in a homogeneous medium, light is propagated in straight
lines, and that the direction of these rays changes suddenly, according to determinate laws, at
the surface of separation of two different media. From this point of view, one can build a special
science in which one extracts from simple questions of Analysis the study of bundles of rays
originally emanating from a single source. However, experiment easily shows that the ray of light
has no physical existence and that it vanishes if one tries to isolate it; it is impossible to know the
real properties of bundles of rays and of the images they produce in optical systems without
introducing the dimensions of the apertures by which they are limited.
It's usually more convenient to talk about rays rather than beams.
Sounds
Sound is defined as "(a) Oscillation in pressure, stress, particle displacement, particle velocity,
etc., propagated in a medium with internal forces (e.g., elastic or viscous), or the superposition
of such propagated oscillation. (b) Auditory sensation evoked by the oscillation described in (a).
"[4] Sound can be viewed as a wave motion in air or other elastic media. In this case, sound is a
stimulus. Sound can also be viewed as an excitation of the hearing mechanism that results in the
perception of sound. In this case, sound is a sensation.
Sound Waves Properties and Characteristics
Although there are many complexities relating to the transmission of sounds, at the point of
reception (i.e. the ears), sound is readily dividable into two simple elements: pressure and time.
These fundamental elements form the basis of all sound waves. They can be used to describe, in
absolute terms, every sound we hear.
However, in order to understand the sound more fully, a complex wave such as this is usually
separated into its component parts, which are a combination of various sound wave frequencies
(and noise)
Sound waves are often simplified to a description in terms of sinusoidal plane waves, which are
characterized by these generic properties:

 frequency, or its inverse, wavelength

 amplitude, sound pressure or Intensity
 speed of sound
 direction
Sound that is perceptible by humans has frequencies from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. In air
at standard temp and pressure , the corresponding wavelengths of sound waves range from 17 m to
17 mm. Sometimes speed and direction are combined as a velocity vector; wave number and
direction are combined as a wave vector.
Transverse waves, also known as shear waves, have the additional property, polarization, and are
not a characteristic of sound waves.
Characteristics of Sounds
(i) Pitch
(ii) Quality or Timber
(iii) Loudness.
Pitch is perceived as how "low" or "high" a sound is and represents the cyclic,
repetitive nature of the vibrations that make up sound. For simple sounds, pitch
relates to the frequency of the slowest vibration in the sound (called the fundamental
harmonic). In the case of complex sounds, pitch perception can vary. Sometimes
individuals identify different pitches for the same sound, based on their personal
experience of particular sound patterns. Selection of a particular pitch is determined
 by pre-conscious examination of vibrations, including their frequencies and the
balance between them. Specific attention is given to recognising potential harmonics.

Timbre is perceived as the quality of different sounds (e.g. the thud of a fallen rock, the
whir of a drill, the tone of a musical instrument or the quality of a voice) and represents the pre-
conscious allocation of a sonic identity to a sound (e.g. “it’s an oboe!"). This identity is based on
information gained from frequency transients, noisiness, unsteadiness, perceived pitch and the
spread and intensity of overtones in the sound over an extended time frame.
Loudness is perceived as how "loud" or "soft" a sound is and relates to the totalled
number of auditory nerve stimulations over short cyclic time periods, most likely over the
duration of theta wave cycles. This means that at short durations, a very short sound can sound
softer than a longer sound even though they are presented at the same intensity level.
Behavior of Sounds

Like light waves and other waves, sound waves are reflected, refracted, and
diffracted, and exhibit interference.

Reflection
Sound is constantly being reflected off many different surfaces. Most of the time the reflected
sound is not noticed, because two identical sounds that reach the human ear less than 1/15 of a
second apart cannot be distinguished as separate sounds. When the reflected sound is heard
separately, it is called an echo.
Sound is reflected from a surface at the same angle at which it strikes the surface. This fact
makes it possible to focus sound by means of curved reflecting surfaces in the same way that
curved mirrors can be used to focus light. It also accounts for the effects of so-called whispering
galleries, rooms in which a word whispered at one point can be heard distinctly at some other
point fairly far away, though it cannot be heard anywhere else in the room. (Statuary Hall of the
United States Capitol is an example.) Reflection is also used to focus sound in a megaphone and
when calling through cupped hands.
Refraction
When a wave passes from one material to another at an angle, it usually changes speed, causing
the wave front to bend. The refraction of sound can be demonstrated in a physics laboratory by
using a lens-shaped balloon filled with carbon dioxide to bring sound waves to a focus.

Diffraction
When sound waves pass around an obstacle or through an opening in an obstacle, the edge of
the obstacle or the opening acts as a secondary sound source, sending out waves of the same
frequency and wavelength (but of lower intensity) as the original source. The spreading out of
sound waves from the secondary source is called diffraction. Because of this phenomenon,
sound can be heard around corners despite the fact that sound waves generally travel in a
straight line.

Interference
Whenever waves interact, interference occurs. For sound waves the phenomenon is perhaps
best understood by thinking in terms of the compressions and rarefactions of the two waves as
they arrive at some point. When the waves are in phase so that their compressions and
rarefactions coincide, they reinforce each other (constructive interference). When they are out
of phase, so that the compressions of one coincide with the rarefactions of the other, they tend
to weaken or even cancel each other (destructive interference). The interaction between thetwo
waves produces a resultant wave