What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance between the slits in a double-slit experiment is increased?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance between the slits in a double-slit experiment is increased?
Fringe width increases
Fringe width decreases
Fringe pattern disappears
Fringe intensity increases
Increasing the distance between the slits decreases the fringe width, as fringe width is inversely proportional to the slit separation.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the diffraction pattern when the distance between the slits in a double-slit experiment is increased?
Solution: Increasing the distance between the slits decreases the fringe width, as fringe width is inversely proportional to the slit separation.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what a double-slit experiment is. It involves light passing through two narrow slits and creating a pattern of light and dark bands on a screen.
Step 2: Know that the distance between the two slits is called 'slit separation'.
Step 3: Recognize that the pattern created on the screen consists of bright and dark areas called 'fringes'.
Step 4: Learn that 'fringe width' is the distance between two adjacent bright or dark fringes.
Step 5: Understand the relationship: as the distance between the slits increases, the fringe width decreases.
Step 6: Conclude that increasing the slit separation makes the fringes closer together, resulting in a smaller fringe width.
