Rayleigh criterion
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Rayleigh criterion
(′rā·lē krī′tir·ē·ən)
(chemistry) The criterion for spontaneous pressure oscillations to accompany combustion, namely, that combustion progresses more rapidly or efficiently during the compression phase of the pressure oscillation than during the rarefaction phase.
(optics) A criterion for the resolving power of an optical instrument which states that the images of two point objects are resolved when the principal maximum of the diffraction pattern of one falls exactly on the first minimum of the diffraction pattern of the other.
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Rayleigh criterion
Wiley Book of Astronomy:
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Rayleigh criterion
A rule for how finely a set of optics may be able to distinguish the location of objects that are near each other, proposed by the English physicist Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919). The criterion for resolution is that the central ring in the diffraction pattern of one image should fall on the first dark interval between the Airy disk of the other and its first diffraction ring. For an objective lens of diameter d employing light with a wavelength λ (usually taken to be 5600 Å), the resolution is approximately 1.22 × λ/d.
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