In a double-slit experiment, if the distance between the slits is halved, what happens to the fringe separation on the screen?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a double-slit experiment, if the distance between the slits is halved, what happens to the fringe separation on the screen?
It doubles
It halves
It remains the same
It quadruples
The fringe separation is inversely proportional to the distance between the slits; halving the distance doubles the fringe separation.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: In a double-slit experiment, if the distance between the slits is halved, what happens to the fringe separation on the screen?
Solution: The fringe separation is inversely proportional to the distance between the slits; halving the distance doubles the fringe separation.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand the double-slit experiment. It involves light passing through two slits and creating a pattern of bright and dark lines (fringes) on a screen.
Step 2: Know that the distance between the slits affects how far apart these fringes are on the screen.
Step 3: Learn that fringe separation is inversely proportional to the distance between the slits. This means if you change the distance between the slits, the fringe separation changes in the opposite way.
Step 4: If you halve the distance between the slits, you are making the distance smaller.
Step 5: Since the fringe separation is inversely proportional, halving the distance between the slits will double the fringe separation on the screen.
