Home UK English Airy disc

Meaning of Airy disc in English:

Airy disc

(also Airy's disc)

noun

Mathematics Physics

  • The circular diffraction pattern formed when plane light waves pass through a point aperture; the bright central region of this.

Origin

1920s; earliest use found in Transactions Optical Society. Described by Airy in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc 5 285.