User:Srleffler
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Welcome to my user page. I'm an industrial physicist, specializing in lasers and optics, although I have pretty broad interests and edit articles on a wide range of topics.
I think Wikipedia is quite possibly the best invention since the library.
Feel free to leave a message for me on my talk page.
| “ | Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. | ” |
| — Jimbo Wales | ||
Rants
Good links
- Good links are singular nouns or noun phrases, or gerunds.
- Good links are as specific as possible. The specific article will provide links to more general ones, if needed.
- Good links point to the article title that is most appropriate to the context, even if that title redirects elsewhere.
- Good links can be red.
- Links that are not good links are bad links, even if they happen to work.
Wikipedia is not a dictionary
Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Dictionaries are about words. Encyclopedias are about things. This has several implications:
- Different things that share the same name get separate articles.
- Different names for the same thing are covered in one article.
- Articles that begin something like "In <field> the term x refers to..." should usually be rewritten in the form "In <field>, an x is a...".
- Articles should never lead off with the etymology of the article title. In most cases, the etymology will not even be important enough to mention in the introduction. In many cases, it may not be worth mentioning at all.
- Articles often introduce the pronunciation of the article's subject in the first sentence. I'm open to discussion on whether this is appropriate. It may well be the best place for it, when the pronunciation is difficult or unclear. Pronunciation should not be given unless it is difficult or unusual, however.
Favorite references
- Collett, Edward (2005). Field Guide to Polarization. SPIE Field Guides vol. FG05. SPIE. ISBN 0-8194-5868-6.
- Greivenkamp, John E. (2004). Field Guide to Geometrical Optics. SPIE Field Guides vol. FG01. SPIE. ISBN 0-8194-5294-7.
- Hecht, Eugene (1987). Optics (2nd ed. ed.). Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-11609-X.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - Siegman, Anthony E. (1986). Lasers. University Science Books. ISBN 0-935702-11-3.
- Taylor, Nick (2000). LASER: The inventor, the Nobel laureate, and the thirty-year patent war. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83515-0.
- Wangsness, Roald K. (1986). Electromagnetic Fields (2nd ed. ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-81186-6.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - Yariv, Amnon (1989). Quantum Electronics (3rd Edition ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-4716-0997-8.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help)