Laser schlieren deflectometry

Okay kiddo, do you know what a laser is? Great! So, imagine that we shine a laser beam through a piece of clear glass or a gas. The beam of light appears straight to our eyes, right? But, what if I told you that there could be tiny disturbances or changes in the glass or gas that can make the laser light bend?

That's where schlieren deflectometry comes in. Schlieren is a fancy word that means "streaks" or "lines" that appear when the light changes direction. Deflectometry is just a really long word that means we are measuring the extent to which light is bending.

Now, what makes laser schlieren deflectometry so special is that we use lasers to create a really powerful beam of light that can detect even tiny disturbances in the glass or gas that we are looking at. The laser then gets bounced off mirrors and lenses and displays the changes in a camera so that scientists can see exactly where there are any disturbances or changes in the material.

This technique is super useful because scientists can use it to study things like the heat generated by a flame, the way air flows around an airplane, and even the way sound waves move through a room. By using lasers and schlieren deflectometry, they can see exactly how the light bends and make a map of the changes, which helps them to better understand the world around us.