---
title: 'The optics for everyday life'
media_order: 'chrono_text_opt_geo_fr_v2.jpeg,sciences_optique_rays_fr.jpeg,chrono_opt_geo_fr_v2.jpeg,Opt_geom_1.jpg,OG_intro.mp3,OG_intro.ogg'
---

### The optics for everyday life

![](Opt_geom_1.jpg)

[AUDIO : _Geometrical optics: the optics of everyday life_](OG_intro.mp3)

#### Geometrical optics lets us understand :

* The **Vision**
* **Optical instruments** : * magnifiers, telescopes, astronomical or terrestrial glasses, microscopes, cameras with telephoto lenses and zoom *
* **Eyeglasses and contact lenses** to correct vision defects.
* Optical phenomena such as **fog, rainbows, mirages**.
* The operation of a **fiber optic**.

<!--text of the audio:
If geometric optics is the oldest science of optics, it is really the one that applies to the closest to our everyday life.
It helps to understand how the eye perceives its environment. It also helps to understand how conventional optical devices work, such as the camera with its zoom or various lenses, the microscope, the telescope and the astronomical or terrestrial glasses.
It also makes it possible to characterize the defects of the eye, to understand how eyeglasses and contact lenses correct these defects, and to calculate their profiles according to the defects to be corrected.
It allows to understand the optical phenomena like the rainbow (as well its colors as its shape and its position with respect to the sun) and like the mirages observed sometimes in the desert.
Finally, it allows us to understand how light can propagate in an optical fiber, which is at the base of all modern terrestrial communication networks.-->

#### Geometrical optics : the oldest science of optics

![](chrono_opt_geo_en_v2.jpeg)

![](chrono_text_opt_geo_fr_v2.jpeg)


#### Geometrical optics : position in the optical sciences

![](sciences_optique_rays_en.jpg)