What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance to the screen is incre
Practice Questions
Q1
What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance to the screen is increased?
Fringe width decreases
Fringe width increases
Fringe intensity increases
Fringe intensity decreases
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance to the screen is increased?
Step 1: Understand what a diffraction pattern is. It is a pattern of light and dark bands created when light waves spread out after passing through a small opening or around an obstacle.
Step 2: Know that the distance from the opening (or obstacle) to the screen where the pattern is observed can affect the pattern.
Step 3: When you increase the distance to the screen, the light waves have more space to spread out.
Step 4: As the light waves spread out more, the distance between the bright and dark bands (called fringe width) increases.
Step 5: Therefore, increasing the distance to the screen makes the fringe width larger, resulting in a wider diffraction pattern.
