Optical design and computation

Abstract

Naturally in the more final stages of design accurate ray tracing or an equivalent thereof is imperative. Also in this respect development has taken place only in comparatively recent years. Before introduction of the desk calculator the usual method was purely trigonometrically using log tables. When-using desk calculators log tables are of course unnecessary and the natural values of the trigonometrical functions are used, preferably in decimal degree fractions or radians, as arguments.