Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The book by T. Rossing and C. Chiaverina is written in a profoundly elegant manner. The authors introduce the phenomena of light and colors, reflection and refraction, interference and diffraction, polarization, light sources and spectra, holography and photography, computer images and optical storages, as well as symmetry in art and nature. It is not only a textbook of contemporary optics for a one-semester undergraduate course, but it is also helpful for industry engineers working in the optical area, college professors, and physicists. Compared to most textbooks, this book has four distinct characteristics. (1)The book emphasizes the phenomena and experiments of light rather than the mathematical theories of light. (2)It includes wide fields, from geometric optics (mirror, lens) to physical optics (slit, grating) and from quantum optics (laser, spectrum) to the symmetry, and connects them. (3)It discusses the intrinsic properties of optics and the combination of art and nature. Young students can obtain the fundamental optical concept as well as the sophisticated philosophic idea. (4)Most importantly, it stimulates the interest of the readers to explore more contents of optical phenomena and theories. My daughter, a college student, said, ¡°I learned many things, having fun at the same time¡±.
It was my pleasure to read the book and I recommend it highly.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Light Science: Physics and the Visual Arts (Undergraduate Texts in Contemporary Physics)
Intended for students in the visual arts and for others with an interest in art, but with no prior knowledge of physics, this book presents the science behind what and how we see. The approach emphasises phenomena rather than mathematical theories and the joy of discovery rather than the drudgery of derivations. The text includes numerous problems, and suggestions for simple experiments, and also considers such questions as why the sky is blue, how mirrors and prisms affect the colour of light, how compact disks work, and what visual illusions can tell us about the nature of perception. It goes on to discuss such topics as the optics of the eye and camera, the different sources of light, photography and holography, colour in printing and painting, as well as computer imaging and processing.
