Bronze Gladiator is an optical bench you can carry. Put lenses and mirrors on the rail, aim a beam through them, and watch π the rays bend in real time β±οΈ while the numbers π’ that matter β effective focal length, image πΌοΈ distance, magnification, spot size β update with every millimetre you move.
THE BENCH
Drag β a component along the rail to position it, select it and pull its handle to tilt it, long-press for duplicate, lock or delete. Add parts from the palette, then slide the source at one end or the detector bar at the other. The ray diagram π redraws as you go, so a setup is understood by watching it rather than by solving it on paper.
THE LIGHT
Choose the source that suits the experiment: a parallel beam, a fan, a single ray, or an object arrow when you want to see π the image πΌοΈ itself. Set how many rays to trace, pick a wavelength anywhere across the visible spectrum, or switch to white light and watch dispersion pull the colours apart.
THE READOUT
Above the diagram π: effective focal length, image πΌοΈ distance, magnification, RMS spot size and throughput, with the image flagged as real or virtual, upright or inverted. Everything that a bench and a ruler would tell you, without the bench or the ruler.
COMPONENTS
A library π of optical parts with the properties that define them, so the difference between two lenses is a number π’ you can read rather than a guess. Any setup worth keeping goes into saved setups and reopens exactly as you left it.
CHALLENGES
Set problems to solve on the bench: reach a given magnification, form an image πΌοΈ at a fixed distance, keep the spot under a limit. The bench checks the result, so you find out whether your reasoning held.
ANALYSIS AND JOURNAL
The analysis view breaks a setup down beyond the headline numbers π’, and the journal keeps what you built and measured, turning a session β±οΈ of experiments into a record you can return to.
Bronze Gladiator is for physics students working through geometrical optics, teachers who want a demonstration that reacts instantly β‘, photographers curious about what glass actually does, and anyone who would rather move a lens and see π what happens.
An optical bench in your pocket: place lenses, trace rays, read the focus.