A frequent question posed to optical suppliers and manufacturers is: “What is the difference between Root Mean Square (RMS) and Peak-to-Valley (P-V)?” RMS and P-V are both methods for describing how well the shape of an object matches its designed curvature, called “surface figure" and "surface roughness," respectively. An understanding of RMS and P-V is critical in order to prevent over- or under-specifying the parts of an optical system.
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