A method for estimating the finishing birefringence color of a crystal of random orientation in a thin section

Abstract

Due to the variability in thickness of the balsam layer, direct measurements of the thickness of a thin section with micrometers are unreliable. The interference figure does not give a sufficiently accurate indication of the orientation to enable one to estimate what the interference color of the finished thin section, consisting of a single crystal or of extremely coarse rock, should be. Therefore, the following method for estimating the birefringence color for standard thickness has been used.

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