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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaussian optics</span></span>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For Gaussian beam optics, see <a href="Gaussian_beam" title="Gaussian beam">Gaussian beam</a>.</div>
<p><b>Gaussian optics</b> is a technique in <a href="Geometrical_optics" title="Geometrical optics">geometrical optics</a> that describes the behaviour of light rays in optical systems by using the <a href="Paraxial_approximation" title="Paraxial approximation">paraxial approximation</a>, in which only rays which make small angles with the <a href="Optical_axis" title="Optical axis">optical axis</a> of the system are considered.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In this approximation, trigonometric functions can be expressed as linear functions of the angles. Gaussian optics applies to systems in which all the optical surfaces are either flat or are portions of a <a href="Sphere" title="Sphere">sphere</a>. In this case, simple explicit formulae can be given for parameters of an imaging system such as <a href="Focal_length" title="Focal length">focal length</a>, <a href="Magnification" title="Magnification">magnification</a> and brightness, in terms of the geometrical shapes and material properties of the constituent elements.
</p><p>Gaussian optics is named after <a href="Mathematician" title="Mathematician">mathematician</a> and <a href="Physicist" title="Physicist">physicist</a> <a href="Carl_Friedrich_Gauss" title="Carl Friedrich Gauss">Carl Friedrich Gauss</a>, who showed that an optical system can be characterized by a series of <a href="Cardinal_point_(optics)" title="Cardinal point (optics)">cardinal points</a>, which allow one to calculate its <a href="Optical_properties" title="Optical properties">optical properties</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. Lipson, S.G. Lipson, H. Lipson, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aow3o0dhyjYC&pg=PA51"><i>Optical Physics</i></a>, 4th edition, 2010, University Press, Cambridge, UK, p. 51.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">W.J. Smith, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DrtM_bAnf_YC&pg=PA22"><i>Modern Optical Engineering</i></a>, 2007, McGraw-Hill, p. 22.</span>
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