Algebraic ray tracing on a digital computer.
This paper is concerned with algebraic (as opposed to numeric) ray tracing through an optical system. Input and output are polynomial expressions, and it is shown that polynomial handling facilities suffice for all the intermediate steps. The Fortran program Alray had been constructed, based on the polynomial handling program Algan. The input ray to the system is specified by parameters that permit skew rays to be traced. Optical surfaces may be reflecting or refracting, normal or high order aspheric. Expressions characterizing the output ray are printed as polynomials in the variables used to define the input ray and optical surfaces.
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