Physics 471 Resources

Resources for Physics 471

Dr John S. Colton

Handouts

Here are handouts for various class periods, in order of when we will cover them in the semester.

Exam Study Material

Past Exams

Be careful about coverage, namely the past exams might not exactly match the exams of your semester. For example in Winter 2024 the last two sections of chapter 4 were on exam 2, whereas in Winter 2025 all of chapter 4 is on exam 1. 

Downloads for Homework Problems

  • Here are the "knife edge technique" data files, laser power vs. x. The numbers in the file names indicate the location the knife edge was for each set of data, i.e. the z-value in mm. The x-values of the data in the files are also in mm. The units of the y-values of the given data (power meter readings) are unimportant.
  • Color stuff:
    • See the "Color.pdf" file in the handout section above. 
    • Here is a plot of the chromaticity diagram: CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram.pdf 
    • Here is a plot of the color matching functions: plot of CIE 1931 color matching functions.pdf
    • Here is the website link where you can download the numerical values of the color matching functions: http://cvrl.ucl.ac.uk/. There are a few different versions of the color matching functions. Let's stick to the original 1931 functions (they are also the ones shown in the plot in the previous bullet point), even though some modifications have been made since then which should make the more recent ones more accurate. To download the original 1931 functions go to the cvrl website then:
      • Click the "CMFs" link on the left
      • Click the second "E/w" button below the "CIE 1931 2-deg, XYZ CMFs" title to download a file (the first button gives points every 5 nm, the second button gives points every 1 nm).

Animations

  • Here are several optics animations, many developed by Dr. Peatross as he was writing the textbook.
  • Here's an animation illustrating what the free spectral range means. The y-axis is the transmission of a Fabry-Perot interferometer with F = 100; the x-axis is the separation distance d, going from 0.9999 cm to 1.0001 cm. One plot (the blue curve) is for lambda = 500 nm. The other plot (tan curve) is for lambda = 500 nm + (a small delta lambda), and the plot is animated based on the value of delta lambda. The changing delta lambda is given in the plot label. You can see what happens as delta lambda is varied from 0 to 2x the FSR of 0.0125 nm.
  • Here are some animations depicting how horizontally and vertically polarized light combine to produce other polarizations.
    • Diagonal polarization as a sum of equal part in phase horizontal and vertical polarizations
    • diagonal polarization
    • Circular polarization as a sum of equal part 90 deg out of phase horizontal and vertical polarizations. This is right circular, in the usual nomenclature.
    • circular polarization
    • Elliptical polarization as a sum of unequal part 90 deg out-of-phase horizontal and vertical polarizations (vertical = 2x horizontal). This is right-handed, in the usual nomenclature.
    • elliptical polarization 1
    • Elliptical polarization as a sum of equal part -45 deg out-of-phase horizontal and vertical polarizations. This is left-handed, in the usual nomenclature.
    • elliptical polarization 2
    • These polarization animations were all created with this Mathematica program which you're welcome to download (thanks to former student Levi Homer): Polarization-animation.nb
  • Here are depictions of spherical waves from point sources.
    waves from a point source
    waves from two point sources
  • Here's an animation illustrating the Rayleigh criterion by plotting the sum of two jinc^2 functions.