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Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

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Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#201

Post by p1esk »

MR4D wrote: post #99

What wenT unsaid wasn’t anything about expensive camera gear, but that phone thingy we hold in our pocket. THAT device will get much better at photography in very quick order, and the price change will be largely immaterial. I fully believe this will be the death of all but professional cameras in 5 years or less. (Yes, I know cameras are already in sharp decline, but I’m talking true death - bankruptcies and firms l…

I fully believe

Why? What makes you think this will be easier to implement than existing methods?

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#202

Post by valesco »

kragen wrote: post #111
VMG wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. But there are things besides money and math. Like photography!

I thought the point of photography was primarily so that you (people, in general, not necessarily just you individually) could look at the photos, i.e., experience them consciously, and secondarily to consciously experience the process of photography itself. But perhaps you have a different reason for considering photography worthwhile, other than the conscious experience of the photographs and of the photography pro…

Photography can be likened to painting, it's a form of art.

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#203

Post by the_seraphim »

mykowebhn wrote: post #25

> After months of working on solving the problem, Rafael González recalls, “I remember one morning I was making myself a slice of bread with Nutella, when suddenly, I said out loud: Mothers! It is there!” > He then ran to his computer and started programming the idea. When he executed the solution and saw that it worked, he says he jumped all over the place. It is unclear whether he finished eating the Nutella bread.…

newton had his apple, but Gonzalez had his nutella

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#205

Post by themeiguoren »

readams wrote: post #17

I'm not sure I really follow how this actually will result in better lenses. Is the precision of the numerical solution really the problem, or is the problem the actual precise manufacturing of the lens elements? I have a strong suspicion that the numerical solution is as precise as needed and the limiting factor is the manufacturing, but I would be interested to hear how this results in something new.

Your suspicion is right, as far as manufacturing goes.

The real boon of this discovery is in designing lenses. For example, the authors have already used it to design a single-lens telescope for the first time [1]. I don't know much about the forefront of optics, but at least in my field having analytical models that you quickly iterate on and use to prime intuition are extremely useful.

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11129

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#206

Post by ASalazarMX »

mykowebhn wrote: post #25

> After months of working on solving the problem, Rafael González recalls, “I remember one morning I was making myself a slice of bread with Nutella, when suddenly, I said out loud: Mothers! It is there!” > He then ran to his computer and started programming the idea. When he executed the solution and saw that it worked, he says he jumped all over the place. It is unclear whether he finished eating the Nutella bread.…

> Mothers! It is there!

Since no one has clearly pointed it out, "¡Madres!" is a multipurpose Mexican expression that rarely has to do with actual motherhood. "Holy crap!" is a good analogy in this case.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=madre https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/madre

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#207

Post by mrguyorama »

richardhod wrote: post #106
nuxi wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nutella though is a sugar-and-palm/vegetable-oil spread, which - probably accidentally - contains traces of hazelnuts, powdered milk and cocoa.

I don't understand the downvoting of the parent here, which is factually correct and worth noting. It's incredibly unhealthy and this is just down to marketing that anybody eats it. You can make really nice chocolate spreads with your own hazelnuts

>It's incredibly unhealthy and this is just down to marketing that anybody eats it.

Because a spoonful of palm oil and sugar with hazelnut flavoring is tasty?

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#208

Post by yagi »

Doubtful that this paper is the first analytic solution. There's a light artist who exhibited lenses like this at NYC's Museum of Math several years ago. They turned flashlight beams into pictures. At the artist's talk he passed around a wavy lens and mentioned that one of the surfaces was solved in closed form. Looked like second-to-bottom lens on the page http://zintaglio.com/lens.html

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#209

Post by peter_d_sherman »

Brilliant!

Two thoughts:

1) The size of the equation is rather large. Nature tends to like simple equations, I wonder if this equation could be restated in a simpler format and not lose its efficacy. I also wonder if there are still simpler versions that trade off efficacy for degrees of error.

2) If the equation cannot be reduced, then this equation bears looking at from an information preservation perspective, that is, to people who study how the universe preserves information under various conditions, this is one of the equations they should add to their list of equations to study...

But, overall a brilliant, laudable, commendable work with great applications and benefit to society!

Well done!

Re: Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem

#210

Post by m463 »

zaroth wrote: post #29
mykowebhn wrote: post #25

> After months of working on solving the problem, Rafael González recalls, “I remember one morning I was making myself a slice of bread with Nutella, when suddenly, I said out loud: Mothers! It is there!” > He then ran to his computer and started programming the idea. When he executed the solution and saw that it worked, he says he jumped all over the place. It is unclear whether he finished eating the Nutella bread.…

Gave me shivers reading it. Beautiful example of the incredible mystery of the human mind. Poof! And the solution materialized. Of course, all the groundwork had been laid. All the neurons primed. Just incredible. And that formula. Damn.

> Poof! And the solution

...snapped into focus

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