Leumas Physics

Optical Path Length

OPL = n·d

What it says

The distance light would have travelled in vacuum in the same time — what interference actually depends on.

Symbols

SymbolQuantityDimension
OPLOptical path length (m)L
nRefractive index (dimensionless)1
dGeometric distance (m)L

Work it out

Enter what you know. No account needed.

Fill in all but one: n, d, OPL are all empty.

Filed under Optics · derive through it in the explorer