Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/iii/paper-338/2/a/vii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 338 2 a vii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the unnormalized Zernike polynomial with , the three radial terms areSince ,Along a central chord with signed coordinate , replace by . The profile is even, equals one at the center and both edges, and has minima at . This Zernike spherical mode corresponds to primary spherical aberration, balanced by defocus and piston terms rather than simply the raw quartic Seidel term.
The unnormalized Zernike spherical mode on a central chord
. The even quartic has central and edge values one and two minima of minus one half. Its lower-order terms remove its projections onto piston and defocus. Details. New to topics? Read the docs here!
