It often happens in industrial and government laboratories that an electrical or mechanical engineer is required to design an optical system to perform some particular function. He then needs a basic knowledge of optics, especially geometrical, and a clear understanding of the flow of light through an optical system. The purpose of this book is to provide this basic information, enabling a nonoptical engineer to tackle his unfamiliar problem.
Several standard types of optical instrument are described in detail because they are so often used alone or in combination to form more complicated systems. Some degree of familiarity with physical optics, diffraction, and coherence is also required because of the importance of phenomena resulting from the finite wavelength of light. These matters receive consideration wherever they arise in the discussion of a problem.
This book represents an expansion of undergraduate and summer-school courses in geometrical optics and system design given by the author in the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester...