Rayleigh distance Rayleigh distance Rayleigh distance in optics is the axial distance from a radiating aperture to a point at which the path difference between the axial ray and an edge ray is λ / 4. An approximation of the Rayleigh Distance is formula_1, in which Z is the Rayleigh distance, D is the aperture of radiation, λ the wavelength. This approximation can be derived as follows. Consider a right angled triangle with sides adjacent formula_2, opposite formula_3and hypotenuse formula_4. According to Pythagorean theorem, formula_5. Rearranging, and simplifying formula_6 The constant termformula_7 can be neglected. In antenna applications, the Rayleigh distance is
Surface of constant width Surface of constant width In geometry, a surface of constant width is a convex form whose width, measured by the distance between two opposite parallel planes touching its boundary, is the same regardless of the direction of those two parallel planes. One defines the width of the surface in a given direction to be the perpendicular distance between the parallels perpendicular to that direction. Thus, a surface of constant width is the three-dimensional analogue of a curve of constant width, a two-dimensional shape with a constant distance between pairs of parallel tangent lines. More generally, any compact convex body D