Customer Reviews

The Elements Of Fiber Optics

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I obtained a copy of this book (my version was published in 1993) to determine whether it were suitable for an introductory college physics course I teach. While the book does appear to be aimed at an introductory audience, many statements are vague, many have no apparent justification, and many are just plain wrong. For example, Example 1-1 supposedly shows the reader how to find a total bandwidth for a signal. Numbers are thrown together with little explanation, and the units don't even work out to give the claimed result. I am certainly not an expert in the field of optical communication, so maybe I am missing something, but when units don't work I tend to believe an equation is wrong.

Another example of an error is in section 2.3. When discussing the characteristics of a wave, Meardon says "The wavelength is a sine wave moving in a z direction." But wavelength is a distance, not a shape such as sine. The subsequent discussion is guaranteed to leave the beginner confused if not misinformed.

I wish I could refer readers to a better book on the subject at an introductory level, but I have yet to find one. Perhaps Meardon has cleaned up and clarified the work in later editions, but I fear the work has a long way to go before I would consider using it in a course.

This book provided what seemed to be a good introduction to Fiber Optics.