2006-12-22 01:09:01 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Sense light is a particle that behaves like a wave. When a wave passes through a slit diffraction occurs - light, even a laser that is spacial and temporally coherent, spreads out (diffracts) as it passes through the slit. Interference occurs as the bending of the waves from one side of the hole cross over and interfere with wave from the other. If you think of this like a triangle, one side is going to be longer then the other. Depending on the distance and the wave length at certain points the light from one side will be 180 out of phase, canceling each other out.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/sinslitd.html#c1
2006-12-22 01:29:18 · answer #1 · answered by hogie0101 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you look at a slit with a very high power magnifying glass, the slit appears like a large rectangular area (much taller than its width). Now imagine a vertical line going through the center of the slit. The right hand side of the slit and the left hand side of the slit can be considered as two side-by-side slits. If you remember the double slit interference pattern (the interference pattern has two components: one depends on the spacing of slits giving you a bunch of interference lines, the other a general envelope modifying the intensity of the lines; the width of the envelope is inversely proportional to the width of the individual slits) the single slit interference pattern is just that "envelope".
2006-12-22 01:23:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A laser beam is very monochromatic, but the direction of the wavevectors of the individual components of total beam are not all perfectly parallel. These different wavevectors shift the phase of the beam depending on the radial position. When this beam is diffracted by a slit, the different wavevectors interfere in the same way they would from two slits.
2006-12-22 01:16:58 · answer #3 · answered by Mawkish 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the slit diffracts the waves in the laser. that is the sides of the laser beam rub the slit so slow down a nd thus diffract more than the middle of the laser beam, hence an interefence pattern is created.
2006-12-22 03:23:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you need two lasers for an interference pattern
2006-12-22 01:16:34 · answer #5 · answered by malcolmg 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋