Questions tagged [optics]
For questions about the properties of light, including refraction and reflection, in context of technology or observation.
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Readily available MIR refracting material
I am looking for a material that could serve to do the following: build a 5m x 5m wall that looks pretty normal (not necessarily during construction) but has the ability to transmit and refract MIR, ...
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Is the sky on venus likely to be blue above the cloud layer? [duplicate]
In my sci-if universe, humans are settling in the upper atmosphere of venus, and I was just wondering what kind of view they’d have. According to the Soviet venera probes, the sky on venus is likely ...
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Colour of the sky on a planet near a red dwarf [duplicate]
The twin planets Rhoda and Mary are two planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf star 6 lightyears from earth. The two orbit 0.05 AU from their sun, and 415,000 km from each other. They are ...
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Under what conditions would a space battle involving a relatively large number of vessels be barely visible on the surface?
Imagine a space battle happening high above Earth (~25k miles, or ~40200 km). It's right above the observers who are standing on the planet's surface.
Both armies have the same amount of spacecraft, ...
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Optical telegraph that can be seen as far as 90 km. How?
You see, I have this world that has the same planetary characteristics as Earth, and the people of the Snoopish Empire are building an optical telegraph net.
The only problem they have is that their ...
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Material Plausibility of Optical Smelter
Real smelters typically use fire. Unfortunately, fire doesn't work so well underwater, and so an alternative method of heating must be sought by aquatic animals
One potential method would be to use ...
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Can you build an auto turret with Victorian-era technology?
Auto turrets:
When you think of auto-turrets you probably imagine something along the lines of: high tech or state-of-the-art weapon systems. You'd be right as such technology is heavily computerized ...
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Organic reflective optics
Could an animal have eyes like a reflecting telescope, rather than with a lens? The back of this eyeball is a paraboloid mirror, and the retina is a small body on its focal plane. Because the retina ...
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What would be the appearance and color of a deep, pure and vast liquid CO₂ ocean as viewed from space (ignoring the atmosphere's influence)?
So far I had no luck trying to find the visible absorption spectrum of CO₂ anywhere, all I get is the far infrared absorption spectrum and stuff like that.
If you just search "what color is ...
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Light reflecting off a gas giant onto its moon
Okay, thanks to Ash, I know how to calculate the percent power of light hitting a planet at various angles. It is equal to cos(θ)2, where θ is the incident angle. I have a gas giant with a radius of ...
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Would laser weapons have significant recoil?
I was bumming around Reddit the other day when I came across a discussion talking about how laser guns in Warhammer 40,000 have appreciable recoil, enough that a laser sniper rifle was described as ...
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How much can I expand human color perception by adding new photoreceptors?
Normally, the human retina contains four types of light-sensitive receptors (opsins): three types of cones and one type of rods. Receptors contain proteins-chromoproteins - iodopsin in rods, ...
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How should the eyes be arranged that can see microscopic objects?
The phenomenon of "microscopic vision" (mainly according to NS Leskov's story "Lefty") is an amazing visual acuity, for example, some grinders are able to see gaps up to 0.0005 mm, ...
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Implications of early lens development
My culture had access to quality materials (lead oxide) for glass creation, high-enough grit materials for polishing glass, a basic understanding of magnification and mirrors, and about Kepler-level ...
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How could the display technology of self-rewriting books work?
Oh yes, it's Artifact Time! with Best Dad and Ozen the Immovable!
If you watched Hairy Plotter and the Gas Chamber of Secrets, you probably remember the scene where the Horcrux of Adolf Hitler is ...
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