What is the effect of increasing the wavelength of light in a diffraction pattern?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the wavelength of light in a diffraction pattern?
Fringe spacing decreases
Fringe spacing increases
No effect on fringe spacing
Fringe intensity increases
Increasing the wavelength of light increases the fringe spacing in a diffraction pattern.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of increasing the wavelength of light in a diffraction pattern?
Solution: Increasing the wavelength of light increases the fringe spacing in a diffraction pattern.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what a diffraction pattern is. It is a pattern of light and dark areas created when light waves spread out after passing through a small opening or around an obstacle.
Step 2: Know that the wavelength of light is the distance between two peaks of the light wave. Different colors of light have different wavelengths.
Step 3: Realize that when you increase the wavelength of light, you are making the distance between the peaks of the light wave larger.
Step 4: Understand that in a diffraction pattern, the spacing between the bright and dark fringes (the areas where light and dark bands appear) is related to the wavelength of the light used.
Step 5: Conclude that if you increase the wavelength, the distance between these bright and dark fringes (fringe spacing) also increases, making the pattern spread out more.
