Answer the following questions:
(a) In a single slit diffraction experiment, the width of the slit is made double the original width. How does this affect the size and intensity of the central diffraction band?
(b) In what way is diffraction from each slit related to the interference pattern in a double-slit experiment?(c) When a tiny circular obstacle is placed in the path
of light from a distant source, a bright spot is seen at the centre of the shadow of the obstacle. Explain why?
(d) Two students are separated by a 7 m partition wall in a room 10 m high. If both light and sound waves can bend around obstacles, how is it that the
students are unable to see each other even though they can converse easily?
(e) Ray optics is based on the assumption that light travels in a straight line. Diffraction effects (observed when light propagates through small apertures/slits
or around small obstacles) disprove this assumption. Yet the ray optics assumption is so commonly used in an understanding location and several
other properties of images in optical instruments. What is the justification?
(a) In a single slit diffraction experiment, if the width of the slit is made double the original width, the size of the central diffraction band reduces to half and the intensity
of the band increases four times.
(b) If the width of each slit is comparable to the wavelength of light used, the interference pattern thus obtained in the double-slit experiment is modified by diffraction
from each of the two slits.
(c) When a tiny circular obstacle is placed in the path of light from a distant source, a bright spot is seen at the centre of the shadow of the obstacle. The bright spot is
formed due to the constructive interference of the light waves that gets diffracted from the edges of the circular obstacle.
(d) The obstacle bends the waves by a large angle if the wavelength of the wave is comparable with the size of the obstacle. The wavelength of the light wave is much
smaller than the size of the wall. Therefore, the diffraction angle is also very small. As a result, the students will not be able to see each other. On the other hand, the
size of the wall and the wavelength of the sound wave is comparable. Hence, the diffraction angle is large. Therefore, students can hear each other.
(e) The size of the aperture in the optical instruments are much larger than the wavelength of light. Therefore, the diffraction effect of light is negligible in these
instruments. Thus the assumption of light travelling in a straight line can be used in these instruments.
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