MERLOT Materials

The basics of light, structure of an incandescent bulb, and how incandescent bulbs produce visible light. Includes... see more

Fiber optics is being touted in many different ways these days. Telephone systems are moving from copper wires to optical... see more

A hyperlinked exploration of light, color, optics and vision.

This set of tutorials examines lens action as a function of lens shape. Examine the difference between negative and... see more

A practical demonstration of the Inverse Square law, and its applications in astronomy and optics.

Animation (.mpg) and audio (.au) of a demonstration of the inverse square law.

This tutorial explores how a ruby laser crystal works when excited by a xenon flash tube. As photon energy is "pumped"... see more

These applets show the lensing effect of ripples on the surface of a liquid. Two illustrations are available, one for... see more

Demonstrates ray refraction for concave and convex lenses.

This is an Animation of Michelson's Measurement of the Speed of Light. It includes a sample of how the speed was... see more

This java applet shows how an image is formed due to light reflection.

Moirée analogon of holograms using line grids for a reference wave.

Negative meniscus lenses are offered as an alternative to other negative lenses and are particularly appropriate for the... see more

The observed NMR spectrum of a solid powder is the summed signal from crystallites over all possible orientations... see more

This tutorial shows the Fourier relationship between a damped oscillating exponential (a detected FT-NMR transition) and... see more

This tutorial is very similar to the Dipolar Powder Patterns tutorial, in that is illustrates the observed spectrum of a... see more

This tutorial details the relative populations of spin up versus spin down states in spin I=1/2 particles. For most spin... see more

This tutorial demonstrates the primary effects of scalar coupling. Strong coupling influences both the transition... see more

Like the AB (I=S=1/2) Spectrum tutorial, this tutorial also illustrates the effects demonstrated by scalar coupling.... see more

The simplest imaging element in an optical microscope is a perfect lens, which is an ideally corrected glass element that... see more

A self-graded quiz on basic electromagnetim and optics from the second semester of an algebra-based introductory physics... see more

Blackbody Radiation applet allows 10 Planck radiation law curves for arbitrary temperatures in the range 3000-30000K.... see more

This tutorial is similar to the one above except it explores how an object is imaged when the object faces the flat... see more

The plano-convex lens is a positive lens that is able to converge parallel light to form an image. This tutorial explores... see more