Mark P Neyer Optics Photography Project 3-13-2006 4-7-2006 Introduction The purpose of this project was to take photos

s demonstrating certain principles of optics and of physics in general. I used a digital camera to take my photographs, which allowed me to overshoot and select the best photos from each batch. Certain pictures were hard to take and did not come out very clearly, whereas other photos turned out exceptionally well.

Summary Table: 1. Self Portrait in a Mirror I took this picture in my room at night with the lights on. It came out OK I suppose. 2. Reflection off a Guitar This picture was taken in my room at night with the lights on. 3. Reflection off of Relativity by M.C. Escher I took this picture in my room at night with the lights on. 4. Refraction Through a Lava Lamp I took this picture in my room at night with the lights on. 5. Refraction through a glass of Water I took this picture in my room at night with the lights on. 6. Car without Polarizer I took this picture around 6 in evening, with natural lighting. 7. Car with Polarizer I took this car at the same time, with natural lighting again. 8. Charley Wagging his Tail This picture was taken around 7 in the evening, in my backyard, with natural light.

9. Car Driving 1 and Car Driving 2 These pictures were taken at 7:30 in the evening, with natural lighting. 10. Fluffy the Cat 1 and Fluffy the Cat 2 Both of these pictures were taken in my room at night, with the lights on. 11. TV Image 1 and TV Image 2 Both of these pictures were taken in my living room in the evening, with the Television and a few lights on in the room. 12. Silhouette Flower and Silhouette Jawa Both of these pictures were taken in my room at night, with all the lights turned off and my computer displaying a white screen. 13. Two Dots on Paper This picture was taken in my room at 7 pm, with the shades closed and the lights on. 14. Two Dots on the Wall This picture was taken in a hallway with the lights on. 15. Empty Sink and Sink with Archimedes These pictures were taken at a sink in front of a kitchen window at 7:30 PM with some kitchen lights on. 16. Daffodils with Green Filter and Daffodils with No Filter These pictures were taken outside with flash on, at 7:30 PM. 17. Me Juggling This picture was taken in my room at night with the lights on and flash on the camera.

Self Portrait in a Mirror

I took this picture of myself in a mirror, holding a sheet of paper with my name on it per the instructions of the project. I don't really think it came out very well, but I never think pictures of me come out that well. The light in my room shows up very bright in this picture; perhaps I should have held the camera at a slightly lower angle.

Reflection off a Guitar

My goal here was to have the figure on the ground reflected on the bottom of the guitar. For some reason that didn't work out too well, but I did pick up a great reflection of the carpet on the black panel on the back of the guitar. I think it looks pretty cool.

Reflection off of Relativity by M.C. Escher

My goal for this picture was to have the jawa figurine reflected in the M.C. Escher print. That didn't work out for me, but I did pick up a reflection of the Lava lamp in the corer of my room. M.C. Escher is my favorite artist, and Relativity is a perfect example of the kind of self-contradictory image he is well known for.

Refraction Through a Lava Lamp

I took this picture of my 'Claddagh' framed thing through a lava lamp. The lava lamp clearly illustrates the concept of refraction. The image is more bent towards the center of the lamp, because that is the place with the most liquid for the light to pass through.

Refraction through a glass of Water

I took this picture of a glass of water in front of the spine of my cryptography textbook. I think it came out quite nicely; the text on the spin is magnified by the water and the plastic cup holding it.

Car without Polarizer

I took this picture of my car at about 6 PM, in natural lighting. I think it looks pretty sharp, and you get a nice reflection of the trees in my front yard on the front passenger side of the car.

Car with Polarizer

I took this picture of my car with a polarizer in front of the lens after taking the previous photography. I think it came out really well you can see how the light reflected from certain portions of the car is much more polarized than in other parts. The windshield doesn't have the glow that it had before, so you can kind of see inside the car. The front passenger side corner of the car is 'darker' than the rest of the front of the car, implying that most of the light reflected from this part was polarized differently from the rest of the front of the car. The other thing to notice is that the windows on the passenger side of the car are 'brighter' in this picture than in the other picture, implying that light from inside the car passing through these windows has a different polarization (relative to me) than light which passed through the front windshield.

Charley Wagging his Tail

This is a picture of my family's dog Charlemagne. He goes by 'Charley' for short. I'm not sure what he saw in this picture, but it was something exciting enough for him to make his tail wag.

Car Driving 1

I took this picture on the hill behind my house. The road is Route 42, aka Reading Road. I took two Frisbees, covered them in aluminum foil, and placed them 10 meters apart in front of the roadway. I then stood back on a bill about 50 meters from the Frisbees, and took pictures of cars as they drove by. By calculating the ratio of the 'length' of the car in this photograph to the distance between the two Frisbees, and assuming that the car was traveling at 40 mph (5mph above the posted speed limit), I can get an estimate for how long the shutter was open. 'Length' of Car in Photograph: 'Length' of Frisbees: 537 Pixels 778 Pixels

'Real Length' of Car: (537 Pixels) * 10 m / (778 Pixels) = 6.9 m Speed of Car: 40 mph * 0.44704 (m/s)/(1 mph) = 17.8 m/s Shutter Speed: 6.9 m / 17.8 (m/s) = 0.388 s

Car Driving 2

This is a second picture of a car traveling along the road. I thought I'd work the math again to see what came out. Also, I thought these pictures just looked really cool. 'Length' of Car in Photograph: 'Length' of Frisbees: 552 Pixels 778 Pixels

'Real Length' of Car: (552 Pixels) * 10 m / (778 Pixels) = 7.1 m Speed of Car: 40 mph * 0.44704 (m/s)/(1 mph) = 17.8 m/s Shutter Speed: 7.1 m / 17.8 (m/s) = 0.399 s

Fluffy the Cat 1

I took this picture of my cat 'Fluffy' while moving the camera towards her. Shes does not appear to be amused by my antics. I'm not really sure how to explain the yellow haze around the picture.

Fluffy the Cat 2

This is another picture of Fluffy. She actually has two names her 'real' name is 'Trunks', but my parents could never remember the name so they decided to call her 'Fluffy' instead. She and our other cat ('Tiger' or 'Vegeta', depending on who you ask) were named by my sister for characters on the Japenese animated show Dragon Ball Z, but my parents renamed them to names that were 'easier to remember.'

TV Image 1

This is a picture of our television screen, displaying the show Family Guy. Note the Moire Distortion at the edges of the image. This is a relic of the JPEG compression algorithm used to store the image when you have a sampling frequency different but on the order of the frequency of the thing you are sampling (as is the case at the corners of the image), a distortion is visible which makes it look like the image is lighter in some parts and darker in others.

TV Image 2

This is another image of the TV show family guy. Again, note the Moire Distortion it is much heavier this time. It is caused by the fact that the image on the television screen is not continuously bright, but has darker spots in between the pixels. The JPEG compression algorithm (the file format used to represent this image) divides the image up into chunks and then computes a Fourier transform of the image in each of those chunks, discarding higher order frequencies which don't contribute much to the image. If the spatial frequency of the 'chunks' into which the image is cut differs from the spatial frequency of the pixels in the image (which it does), certain chunks will contain more spots 'between pixels' than others, resulting in those chunks appearing darker than the others. The curvy nature of the distortion pattern is a result of the fact that the television screen itself is curved.

Silhouette Flower

I took this picture in my room, with all of the lights turned off, and my computer monitor set to display a white screen. I placed an origami flower on the top of my chair, and took this photograph. I particularly like the 'halo' of glowing light that seems to 'spill' out of the monitor.

Silhouette Jawa

This is a silhouette image of the Jawa figurine that made an appearance earlier. I had to place this guy on a different chair, which explains why the keyboard and the light at the bottom of the computer monitor are visible in this picture but not in the others. I think it looks pretty cool

Two Dots on Paper

I took this picture in my room of a sheet of paper with two dots, spaced 1 cm apart, to illustrate the resolving ability of my camera. It is only interesting when compared to the next photograph.

Two Dots on the Wall

I took the sheet of paper with two dots on it, taped it to the wall, and took pictures of it while I stepped backwards along the floor. This is the last photograph in which the two dots can be distinguished, although it is a bit of a stretch to do so. I used a tape measure and found that I had been standing 240 inches from the door when I took this photo. 240 inches * (1 inch / 2.54 cm) = 94.5 cm Minimum Angular Resolution: arcsin(1 cm / 94.5 cm) = 0.0106 radians = 0.606 degrees.

Empty Sink

This is a picture of my kitchen sink, with a sheet of paper marked at 0.5cm increments taped to the side. I am using it to demonstrate a certain principle of fluid physics.

Sink with Archimedes

This is one of my Guinea Pigs, Archimedes, helping demonstrate the scientific principle first explained by his namesake, Archimedes of Syracuse. The water in the sink is 0.5 cm higher than it was without him or his craft in the water. From this change in height, and using the fact that the weight of water displaced is equal to the weight of the object displacing the water, we can calculate how much Archimedes and his boat weigh: Dimensions of Sink: 16 inches x 14 inches = 1450 cm2. Water Displaced: 1450cm2 * 0.5 cm = 725 cm3 Weight of Archimedes and his sea vessel: 725 g

Daffodils with Green Filter

I took this picture of some Daffodils outside my house, placing a green colored filter over the lens. It looks like some sort of night-vision thing.

Daffodils with No Filter

I took this picture of the same Daffodils, this time with no filter on.

Me Juggling

I really wasn't sure what was meant by a 'Trick Photo' but I think juggling is kind of a neat trick, so I had my brother take a picture of me juggling some balls. I think it came out pretty well. Conclusion Although I had my initial reservations, I though this project was fun and informative. I had to think of ideas to depict certain principles, but I enjoyed the creative process. The concept of a 'trick' photo was kind of vague, but I think I have a handle on what was meant.