Date of Submission
Spring 2021
Academic Program
Physics
Project Advisor 1
Chris Lafratta
Project Advisor 2
Paul Cadden-Zimansky
Abstract/Artist's Statement
The complexity of light’s wave nature is shown in the paths that light takes. In this project I will show several useful ways to imagine and predict how light will travel from one place to another. Once light is produced it does not immediately fill a room, instead it undulates through free space as if the space itself was a fluid. Once we understand the way light flows and interacts with its environment not only can we predict and control its shape with a hologram, but also discover clues which give secrets about where the light has been. Telescopes and microscopes reveal hidden packets of information, coded into the light itself, that would normally be lost to eyes. Using a tool called the Fourier Transform I will show how anyone can intuitively “feel out” what motivates light to move through space in its unique way.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Becher, Bruno Ray, "The Complex Propagation of Light Explained Visually: How to Make a Hologram" (2021). Senior Projects Spring 2021. 80.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2021/80
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Commons, Geometry and Topology Commons, Harmonic Analysis and Representation Commons, Optics Commons