眼睛与光学[英文版 介绍眼睛在教学中的应用].pdfVIP

The Human Eye: A Model System For Teaching Optics Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan University of Waterloo Depts. Of Physics and Electrical Engineering and School of Optometry Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 Email: vengu@uwaterloo.ca ABSTRACT The human eye treated as an optical system is an excellent model to teach various aspects of Optics. The range of topics treated can start from simple refraction upto quantum optics including detection of single photons. In particular, concepts and methods such as ray tracing, apertures and stops, field of view calculations, gradient index systems, non-centered systems, Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction, scattering, Fourier optics as well as aberrations (both Seidel and wavefront aberrations) and adaptive optics can be illustrated using various properties of the human visual system. A course such as this will be of interest to students from biological sciences as well natural science and engineering students who desire some “real world” applications. I have taught these aspects and will describe my experiences and a model curriculum utilizing this ansatz. Keyword list: Optics, dioptrics of eye, biomedical optics, inter-disciplinary courses INTRODUCTION It is generally said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I paraphrase this saying by stating that the human eye is the window to the world of optics. The eye offers a wonderful system for teaching at various levels of sophistication different aspects of optics. Traditional textbooks, i.e., 1 introductory physics textbooks, such as those by Serway and Beichner ,Halliday, Resnick and 2 3 Walker or Giancoli often treat the eye