An optical table is platform that is used to support systems used for optics experiments and engineering. Because optics often demands vibrations be sub-wavelength (fractions of a micrometre), optical tables are typically very heavy and often use pneumatic bearings that act as a low-pass filter to vibrations.
The surface is typically stainless steel with a rectangular grid of tapped holes in either metric or imperial units:
- metric: M6 on a 25 mm grid
- imperial: ΒΌ-20" UNC on a 1" (25.4 mm) grid
Read more about Optical Table: Explanation, Breadboards, Rails and Benches
Famous quotes containing the words optical and/or table:
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The one happiness is to shut one’s door upon a little room, with a table before one, and to create; to create life in that isolation from life.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)