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Physical Optics

Robert W. Wood

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Founder connections

  • Edwin LandReading
    “polarized light and mirages and Wood's own way of doing things”
    Baker Library quotes Land recalling what he learned from Physical Optics and how it led him to pursue a synthetic polarizing sheet. His own edition is unknown.
    Source

Summary

Robert W. Wood examines the behavior of light through theory and experiments. The text covers reflection, refraction, interference, polarization, absorption and scattering. First published in 1905, it includes records of Wood’s own experiments, giving readers both explanations of optical phenomena and examples of how he investigated them.

  • SourceGoogle Books: Physical Optics, 1911 original text · Original Macmillan text contents: reflection, refraction, polarization, absorption and scattering
  • SourceOptica: Robert W. Wood · Biography: Physical Optics first published 1905 with personal experiment logs

Why read it Our view

Read this for the physical principles and experimental methods behind optical systems. It offers a way to study a technical field through both explanations and the experiments used to test them.