Optics

The energy of light carries much of the world's information from one place to another. Surgeons, dentists, dermatologists, and other medical professionals use light in its various forms to heal or repair the body. Business and industry rely on optical scanners and "electric eye" detectors to monitor production quality, maintain security, and keep track of sales and inventory. Simple electric signs advertise products and services and high-tech bundles of hair-thin glass fibers send voices and data around the world. All this and more is done with the power of light. Optics is one of the fundamental disciplines that has driven the technological and communications revolutions of the 20th century, and it literally defines what the world looks like today. Optics, a new volume in the Science and Technology in Focus series, provides an overview of the theory of light as it stands today, in language that students will find both interesting and easy-to-follow. Covering the history of optics as a science and as a technology, as well as showing the ways in which light has been put to work as a tool, this book discusses three of the great triumphs of optical physics in the 20th century in detail - the creation of laser light; the development of fiber optics and optical-based communication; and the progression towards optical computing, which is seen by many computer experts as the next great phase in information technology.