A ripple tank for studying optical caustics and diffraction

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Abstract
The authors describe a ripple tank used to study the short wave optics of extended undulating refracting boundaries. Several examples of caustics and diffraction observed with the apparatus are presented and compared with predictions of catastrophe optics, in which they are in complete agreement. The authors discuss the implications of this work for the conventional uses of ripple tanks to demonstrate wave phenomena, with particular emphasis on possible errors in inferring the forms of the water surface from the patterns of light observed.

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