A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

The Ptolemy–Alhazen Problem and Spherical Mirror Reflection




AuthorsMasayo Fujimura, Parisa Hariri, Marcelina Mocanu, Matti Vuorinen

PublisherSpringer

Publication year2019

JournalComputational Methods and Function Theory

Journal name in sourceCOMPUTATIONAL METHODS AND FUNCTION THEORY

Journal acronymCOMPUT METH FUNCT TH

Volume19

Issue1

First page 135

Last page155

Number of pages21

ISSN1617-9447

eISSN2195-3724

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s40315-018-0257-z

Web address https://doi.org/10.1007/s40315-018-0257-z

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/37108274


Abstract
An ancient optics problem of Ptolemy, studied later by Alhazen, is discussed. This problem deals with reflection of light in spherical mirrors. Mathematically, this reduces to the solution of a quartic equation, which we solve and analyze using a symbolic computation software. Similar problems have been recently studied in connection with ray-tracing, catadioptric optics, scattering of electromagnetic waves, and mathematical billiards, but we were led to this problem in our study of the so-called triangular ratio metric.

Downloadable publication

This is an electronic reprint of the original article.
This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail. Please cite the original version.





Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 20:09