The scientific language spoken by optical instruments

Most common optical instruments include filters, polarizers, interferometers, lenses, lasers and multilayers. It requires two-by-two matrices to study optical beams going through these optical components. It is therefore possible to study these matrices in terms of the two-by-two representation of the six-parameter Lorentz group. Furthermore, using the correspondence between the two-by-two and four-by-four representations, it is possible to study many of the formulas in optics in terms of the kinematics of Lorentz transformations. Conversely, the optical instruments can serve as analogue computers for events in special relativity.