Collimator

Imagine you are trying to make a paper airplane and you want to fold the edges perfectly straight. To do this you might use a ruler to guide your folds and make sure they are straight. A collimator works kind of like a ruler for light or other types of radiation.

A collimator is a device that helps make sure light or other types of radiation travel in a straight line. It usually looks like a long tube with a hole at the end. When light or other radiation enters the collimator, it can only travel in a straight line through the hole at the end. This helps make sure that radiation is going exactly where it is intended to go, and not off in random directions.

Collimators are used in a lot of different fields, including medicine and astronomy. In medicine, they are used in imaging tests like CT scans and x-rays to help make sure the radiation is focused on the part of the body being studied. In astronomy, collimators are used to help telescopes focus on distant objects in space and gather as much light as possible.