Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-20-2003

Publication Title

Applied Optics

Abstract

We analyze the optical caustic produced by light refracted at the curved meniscus surrounding a cylindrical rod standing partially out of a liquid-filled container. When the rod is tilted from the vertical or when light is diagonally incident, the caustic is a four-cusped astroid with two of its cusps obscured by the rod's shadow. If a portion of the flat end of the rod is raised above the water level, the caustic evolves into a pattern of five interlocking cusps. The five cusps result from symmetry breaking of a three-cusped surface perturbation caustic. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.

Original Citation

Lock, James A., Charles L. Adler, Diana Ekelman, Jonathan Mulholland, and Brian Keating. "Analysis of the Shadow-Sausage Effect Caustic." Applied Optics 42 (2003): 418-428.

DOI

10.1364/AO.42.000418

Version

Publisher's PDF

Volume

42

Issue

3

Included in

Physics Commons

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