The physics of light in eighty pictures

Date(s): Wednesday 19th March 2025 (14:00-15:00)
Contact: Event Convenor Contact: Patrik.Svancara@nottingham.ac.uk
Description: Speaker's Name: Professor Sir Michael Berry FRS
Speaker's Affiliation: University of Bristol
Speaker's Research Theme(s): Physics, Art and Poetry,
Abstract:
Classical optics is an ancient subject. But only now have we discovered a library of ‘elementary forms’, that describe light in our everyday world. Rainbows, twinkling stars, sunlight sparkling on water, and the dancing lines of light on the bottoms of swimming pools, can be understood in a unified way using modern geometry. On fine scales, where wave interference must be considered, different geometry describes the secret lines of light’s darkness, the fingerprints of polarisation in the blue sky – invisible to us but perceived by bees and the faint pattern of quantum photons. Poets and novelists, as well as painters, have sometimes represented optical phenomena in ways surprisingly close to those of physicists. The talk is nontechnical and entirely visual.
No registration needed
Venue: Djanogly Recital Hall, University Park

School of Mathematical Sciences

The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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