ONE FORMULA, ONE ANSWER
Circular Aperture Resolution Calculator
Check the Rayleigh diffraction angle for an ideal circular aperture. Choose input units and calculate one value within the stated conditions.
Inputs
Calculations run in this browser. Scientific notation such as 1.2e-3 is supported. Do not group thousands.
Result
Rayleigh diffraction resolution angle θ_R
Enter values and select Calculate.
θ_R ≈ 1.22 λ / D
Assumptions
Use λ,D>0 with D≫λ for the small-angle approximation. This is an ideal diffraction limit; lens aberrations, noise and atmospheric turbulence are excluded. This app restricts the approximation to D ≥ 10λ.
Displayed values are floating-point approximations. Measurement uncertainty and design safety factors are not calculated.
Formula references and credits
NaNa Lab created the code, descriptions, icons and preview images. Text, figures and code from the linked references have not been reproduced.
Physical constants: NIST / CODATA 2022. The values of μ₀ and ε₀ are measured recommendations, not exact defining constants. Values and precision notes are in the source record.
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