optic

Optic is a term with several related meanings. As an adjective, it describes things related to sight or light, as in optical instruments or optical properties. As a noun, optic can denote an optical component or system, for example an optic lens or an optic fiber, and sometimes the eye’s structures, such as the optic nerve. The field of study is called optics or optical science.

Optics is the branch of physics that studies how light propagates, interacts with matter, and is detected. Key concepts include reflection, refraction, dispersion, interference, diffraction, and polarization. Light can behave as both a wave and a particle, and modern optics encompasses both geometric optics (ray-based) and physical or quantum optics. Lenses and mirrors are used to control light to form images; prisms disperse light into spectra; waveguides and fibers transmit light over long distances.

Applications are wide and include imaging systems such as cameras, microscopes, telescopes; eyewear and vision correction; fiber-optic communications; medical and surgical lasers; instrumentation for scientific research; and various consumer electronics, from displays to sensors.

In anatomy, the term optic appears in structures like the optic nerve that carries visual information from the retina to the brain. Historically, optics has evolved from geometric to wave and quantum descriptions, with developments in lasers, fiber optics, and photonics driving modern technology.