Home▸Optics & Light▸Microscope Resolution: Numerical Aperture, Airy Disc and the Abbe Limit (2D)

🔬 Microscope Resolution: Numerical Aperture, Airy Disc and the Abbe Limit (2D)

Image of two small glowing points seen through a microscope objective, with the light cone that the lens collects. Set the wavelength, the numerical aperture and the medium in front of the lens, the magnifications and the distance between the points, and see the Airy pattern, the Rayleigh and Abbe limits, whether the points can be told apart, and whether the magnification is useful or empty. The Airy zero, the energy in the disc, the Rayleigh dip and the Abbe grating limit are checked with four in-page numerical checks.

Optics & Light2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted🤖 ChatGPT⇄ 3D version
Microscope Resolution: Numerical Aperture, Airy Disc and the Abbe Limit (2D) ↗ Open standalone
⚙ Under the hood

Image of two small glowing points seen through a microscope objective, with the light cone that the lens collects. Set the wavelength, the numerical aperture and the medium in front of the lens, the magnifications and the distance between the points, and see the Airy pattern, the Rayleigh and Abbe limits, whether the points can be told apart, and whether the magnification is useful or empty. The Airy zero, the energy in the disc, the Rayleigh dip and the Abbe grating limit are checked with four in-page numerical checks.

compound microscopenumerical apertureAiry discRayleigh criterionAbbe diffraction limit

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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