The first Fresnel Lens date back to 1822 when a French physicist by the name of Augustin Fresnel wanted to make our bodies of water safer for sailors throughout the world. The Fresnel Lens originally were a type of compact lens created by Fresnel for lighthouses. A Fresnel lens replaces the curved surface of a conventional lens with a series of concentric grooves, molded into the surface of a thin, lightweight plastic sheet (“Fresnel Lenses”). The Fresnel Lens were beneficial for lighthouses because they have the ability to capture more oblique light which allowed lighthouses that used them to be seen from greater distances. Fresnel’s lens resembles a giant beehive with a complex system of multi-faceted glass prisms mounted in a brass framework.
The prisms reflect and refract (bend) light and magnify it, thereby taking rays of light that would normally scatter in all directions and focusing them into a single beam. Because of this design, a Fresnel lens is much more efficient than traditional light sources (“The Fresnel Lens”). A huge benefit that emerged from the creation of the Fresnel Lens is an innovation called characteristics. The ability of the Fresnel Lens to create individual light patterns was huge. Prior to the Fresnel lens, most lighthouses had only solid, steady lights. This made it difficult to distinguish one light from another, often causing confusion and dangerous conditions for passing ships. But the Fresnel lens could produce an almost unlimited combination of patterns, depending on the number of installed flash panels and the speed that the lens revolved (“The Fresnel Lens”). Fresnel lenses are most often used in light gathering applications, such as condenser systems or emitter/detector setups. Fresnel lenses can also be used as magnifiers or projection lenses; however, due to the high level of distortion, this is not recommended (“The Fresnel Lens”).
In September 1959 DiVita asked 2nd Lt. Richard Sturzebecher if he knew of a way to produce a strong glass fiber that would be capable of carrying a light signal. Sturzebecher had melted 3 triaxil glass systems together for his senior exam at Alfred University. In his exam, Sturzebecher had used SiO2, a glass powder produced by Corning. Whenever he had tried to look at the substance through a microscope he would end up with headache. Sturzebecher realized that these headaches came from the high amounts of white light produced from the microscopes light that was reflected through the eyepiece via the SiO2. SiO2 would be an ideal substance for transmitting strong light signals if it could be developed into a strong fibre.
The nature of humans is to seek happiness, which may possibly result in chasing illusions rather than settling for harsh realities. In “The Lamp at Noon”, Sinclair Ross uses the wishes of the characters Paul and Ellen, as well as their difficult situation to contrast the concepts of dreams and realities. Specifically, Ross displays the gap between dreams and realities through Paul’s hope for the land to return and his ideal of being a successful farmer to explain that what outcomes may occur if one neglects reality and blindly pursues their dream. Paul wishes to stay on the farmland and believes that the land will be able to cultivate crops. However, Ellen persists that where they are living is a “desert” and reminds him of “the lamp lit at noon” (Ross
James Wright was a poet that dealt with many hardships in his life, but he found a way to turn those negative moments into beautiful works of poetry. As a child, he lived in poverty with his family and later on suffered with depression and alcoholism. Growing up in Ohio, Wright learned how to work hard which is reflected in his poetic achievements. Wright turned his struggles into poems and for him to be able to achieve success through his pain is what makes his work American. Frank McShane wrote “The Search for Light” in Peter Stit and Frank Graziano’s James Wright: A Profile, and in the book McShane includes: “James Wright knew how restricted most American lives were” (131). For Wright to be able to live the “restricted” life McShane is discussing,
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlett Letter, the nature of evil is a prevalent theme that is depicted throughout the novel. Hawthorne is considered by many to be one of the most significant writers during the romantic period of American literature. Many of his writings countered the ideas of Transcendentalism, which was a popular belief during his time. Trancendentalism is described as “an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism . . . it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living”().
Poverty can be a choice or a last resort for many across the globe. The Glass Castle a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, portrays how her family rejected civilization and embraced poverty. I felt Rex Wall’s notion of “sink or swim” (Page 66) portrays the failure and success of having a family. The situation in the Wall’s hopes manifested itself as a Glass Castle, a mysterious glass house the family would hope to build and live in. In order for the family’s dream to succeed, they would have to face many demons on the way. Throughout the book, I protested against some of the choices that were made, but I soon came to an understanding that some people will not change the way they live. I kept on thinking there always a possibility that there is always a cure to a problem, but sometimes there is too little time or understanding on both sides. A common theme that kept on going
projected its rays through the tinted glass... But in the western or black chamber the effect of the
Rene Descartes’ natural light is his saving grace, and not Achilles’ heel. Descartes incorporates the concept of natural light within his epistemology in order to establish the possibility of knowing things completely without doubt. In fact whatever is revealed to the meditator via the natural light is considered to be indefeasible. The warrant for the truth of these ideas does not rely on experience or the senses. Rather the truth of the idea depends on viewing the concept through clear and distinct perception. Descartes’ “I am, I exist”, (Med. 2, AT 7:25) or the ‘cogito’ is meant to serve as the basis for knowing things through clear and distinct perception. Descartes’ cogito is the first item of knowledge, although one may doubt such things as the existence of the body, one cannot doubt their ability to think. This is demonstrated in that by attempting to doubt one’s ability to think, one is engaging in the action of thought, thus proving that thinking is immune to doubt. With this first item of knowledge Descartes can proceed with his discussion of the possibility of unshakeable knowledge. However, Descartes runs into some difficulty when natural light collides with the possibility of an evil genie bent on deceiving the meditator thus putting once thought concrete truths into doubt. Through an analysis of the concept of natural light I
Scientific discoveries never come from nowhere. In a letter to Robert Hooke, Isaac newton said “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” What he meant by that was that all of his discoveries were based upon earlier ones. This is true for all discoveries. Everything we know today, we know because someone before us discovered something that led to our modern discoveries. Before that person was another, and another, and another. In 1813, a man named Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered strange lines in the spectrum coming from a prism. He was building on the optical work of Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. His discovery would later lead to the work of men such as Robert Bunsen and Niels Bohr. The discovery of Fraunhofer lines was based on earlier work in the field of optics, and lead to many discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, and physics.
In Dubliners and To the Lighthouse, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf explore the depressing results of lives devoid of growth or meaning versus those who dare to live their lives in spite of all strife and adversity. Joyce and Woolf are both concerned with the meaninglessness of stagnant lives, the first operating in pre-WWI Ireland, the second in England during and after the war. "The Dead" and To the Lighthouse both reveal the despair of lives that occupy but do not fill the short span of time between birth and inevitable death.
It was invented in 1658 by the one and only Christiaan Huygens(source 3). While he was an astronomer he looked at Saturn with his telescope hoping to study
Williams, B. 1999. A History of Light and Lighting. [online] Available at: http://www.mts.net/~william5/history/hol.htm [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].
Refraction of Light Aim: To find a relationship between the angles of incidence and the angles of refraction by obtaining a set of readings for the angles of incidence and refraction as a light ray passes from air into perspex. Introduction: Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters a medium where it's speed is different. The refraction of light when it passes from a fast medium to a slow medium bends the light ray toward the normal to the boundary between the two media. The amount of bending depends on the indices of refraction of the two media and is described quantitatively by Snell's Law. (Refer to diagram below)
A lighthouse is a structure that warns and navigates ships at night as they near land, creating specific signals for guidance. In Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse, the Lighthouse stands a monument to motivation for completion of long-term goals. Every character’s goals guides him or her through life, and the way that each person sees the world depends on goals they make. Some characters’ goals relate directly to the Lighthouse, others indirectly. Some goals abstractly relate to the Lighthouse. The omnipresent structure pours its guiding light over every character and every action.
The refracting telescope is one of many different types of telescope. Refracting telescopes work by refracting the light through an initial convex lens, (known as the objective lens), then through another convex lens (known as the eyepiece lens). These two lenses focus the light into the eyepiece so we can see the image clearly.
The achromatic lens that first appeared in a 1733 telescope made by Chester Moore Hall, John Hadley's production of larger paraboloidal mirrors in 1721, the process of silvering glass mirrors introduced by Léon Foucault in 1857, and the adoption of long lasting aluminized coatings on reflector mirrors in 1932 evolved the telescopes to higher levels of performance and accuracy.