Talk:Fourier transform spectroscopy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Chemistry Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chemistry, which collaborates on Chemistry and related subjects on Wikipedia. To participate, help improve this article or visit the project page for details on the project.
Article Grading: The article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article..

[edit] General comment

This article is very poor and even wrong in places.

1. Introduction is not good, as already noted
2. The primary domain in the Michelson interferometer is distance (difference in the distance light travels in the two arms). Only when the mirror moves at constant velocity can it be considered to be time. In far infrared FTIR the mirror is moved by a stepper motor. The Fourier co-domain of distance is wavenumber (e.g. cm^-1) not frequency.
3. The use of the term coherence is misleading as the light source is not a source of coherent radiation
4. No mention of the Connes advantage
5. No mention of the fast Fourier transform algorithm
6. No mention of FT mass spectrometer
7. Resolving power of the Michelson interferometer not adequately discussed. In fact Michelson attempted to resolve lines such as Hα in the Balmer series

I don't feel that I have enough expertice to re-write the article, but a re-write is definitely needed. Petergans 11:04, 24 March 2007 (UTC)