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Astronomical Optics, 2nd Edition
book

Astronomical Optics, 2nd Edition

by Daniel J. Schroeder
September 1999
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
478 pages
21h 54m
English
Academic Press
Content preview from Astronomical Optics, 2nd Edition
28 3. Fermat's Principle: An Introduction
3.1.
FERMAT'S PRINCIPLE IN GENERAL
The simplest case illustrating Fermat's Principle is shown in Fig.
3.1.
A surface
Z lies between two points,
PQ
and
P^,
with a
ray
joining these points consisting of
straight line segments. The solid line is the actual ray path and the dashed line
some other path. If the time of travel from
PQ
to P^ is denoted by T, then the
condition that
T
have a stationary value for the actual path is
dT/dx = dx/dy = 0,
(3.1.1)
where x, y are the generalized coordinates of the point where the ray intersects the
surface.
An equivalent statement of Fermat's Principle is obtained b ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780126298109