Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Hamiltonian Optics (Cambridge Monographs on Physics)

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

 

 

This book is by far the best in the field of geometrical optics dealing with 3-d, 5-th and higher orders aberrations in symmetric optical system. The language is very clear and easy to follow, it is written for a broad audience. I would personally recommend it for all how has an interest in the theory of optical aberrations.

This is another great book in the Dover series of Classics. All of the books in this series are well worth the cost and have been for at least 30 years. Guess that is why they are classics.

This book is so cheap but with so many interesting stuff inside, I guess everyone in optics should know something about symmetry and the general thoery.

Having some background in Hamiltonian Mechanics I decided to buy the book to learn something about aberrations in optics. Till chapter 4 I found the book interesting. It defines the optical lenght and explain Fermat Principle, define caracteristic funcions and deduce vectorial ray equations. Chapter 3 explains how important properties can be deduced from symmetry. Chapter 4 introduces different types of aberrations considering the displacement from the ideal imaged point. In paragraph 23. defines the effective aberration coefficients and from there on the book loose all his clarity. It changes several times the notation and writes
long expresion of 12 or more terms with so many coeffiecients that is not posible to remember what are their meaning. I skiped paragraphs, pages and chapters but get the same stuff. So I enjoy only 1/5 of the book (which is better than nothing...) and get disppointed from the rest.