In a thin film of oil on water, which color will appear at the center of the film if the oil has a thickness of λ/2?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a thin film of oil on water, which color will appear at the center of the film if the oil has a thickness of λ/2?
Red
Blue
Green
No color
At the center of the film with thickness λ/2, destructive interference occurs for all wavelengths, leading to no color.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: In a thin film of oil on water, which color will appear at the center of the film if the oil has a thickness of λ/2?
Solution: At the center of the film with thickness λ/2, destructive interference occurs for all wavelengths, leading to no color.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that a thin film of oil on water can create colors due to interference of light.
Step 2: Know that the thickness of the oil film is given as λ/2, where λ is the wavelength of light.
Step 3: Recognize that when light reflects off the top and bottom surfaces of the oil film, it can interfere with itself.
Step 4: Identify that destructive interference occurs when the path difference between the two reflected light waves is equal to half a wavelength (λ/2).
Step 5: Since the thickness of the oil film is λ/2, this means that destructive interference will happen for all wavelengths of visible light.
Step 6: Conclude that at the center of the film, where destructive interference occurs, no color will be visible.
