Aims / Learning outcomes

• To provide an elementary introduction to the wave nature

of light and its geometrical description

Course content
1. Physical vs geometrical optics
2. If light is a wave what sort of wave is it ?
3. EM spectrum
4. Can we describe the results seen in geometrical optics using physical
optics?
5. Huygens' theory
•Light can be seen as made of small particles called
photons. These photons have very special properties and
sometimes their behaviour is better described by
describing them as waves.

•Geometrical optics does not take into account the wave

nature of light and therefore offers a simple but limited
description of light.

•Physical optics (also called wave optics) focus on the

wave nature of light.
“Every physicist thinks that he knows what
photon is. I spent my life to find out what a
photon is and I still don’t know it”
A. Einstein