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Question 1

For an opening of a given size, is diffraction more pronounced for a longer wavelength or for a shorter wavelength?

Answer 1

Longer wavelengths

Question 2

What accounts for the different colors in a soap bubble?

Answer 2

Light reflecting from the outer and inner surfaces of the bubble travels different distances.

Question 3

Is interference restricted to only some types of waves or does it occur for all types of waves?

Answer 3

All types of waves

Question 4

What aspect of light did Thomas Young demonstrate in his now-famous light experiment?

Answer 4

The principle of superposition known as interference

Question 5

When waves from a pair of closely-spaced slits arrive in phase

Answer 5

a bright fringe is produced - if the waves arrive out of phase there is a dark region

Question 6

The superposition of identical waves affects

Answer 6

amplitude

Question 7

Colors seen when gasoline forms a thin film on water illustrate

Answer 7

interference.

Question 8

Thomas Young’s two-source interference patterns demonstrate the

Answer 8

wave nature of light.

Question 9

Which will produce more widely spaced fringes of light when passed through a diffraction grating - light from a red laser or light from a green laser?

Answer 9

light from a red laser

Question 10

If the path-length difference between two identical and coherent beams is two wavelengths when they arrive on a screen, will they produce a dark or a bright spot?

Answer 10

bright spot

Question 11

In the double-slit experiment, fringes are more widely spaced when illumination is with monochromatic

Answer 11

low-frequency light.

Question 12

Huygen’s principle

Answer 12

Every point on a wavefront may be considered the source of secondary wavelets that spread out in all directions with a equal speed to the speed of the propogation of the waves. Wavefronts are made up of tinier wavefronts.

Question 13

What diffracts more, longer or shorter waves?

Answer 13

Longer

Question 14

Diffraction

Answer 14

Bending of light that is not reflection or refraction!

The bending of light that passes near the edge of an object or through a narrow slit causing the light to spread. Small opening, fuzzier shadow. Any bending of light that is not reflection or refraction.

Question 15

Superposition

Answer 15

the overlapping and combining of waves

Question 16

Interference

Answer 16

The result of superposing different waves, usually of the same wavelength.

Question 17

If a wave passes through a smaller opening, the bending of the waves at the edges is ________?

Answer 17

greater

Question 18

What does diffraction depend on?

Answer 18

Wavelength of the wave compared to the size of the obstruction that casts the shadow. Longer waves diffract more.

Question 19

Thin film interference

Answer 19

Creates a reflection from the upper and lower surfaces (of the surfaces of air between tow glass plates or a thin film of gasoline, ect.)

Question 20

Why use blue light in a microscope rather than white?

Answer 20

Less diffraction with the shorter wavelength of blue light.

Question 21

If double slits were illuminated with either blue or red light, which would produce wider spaced fringes?

Answer 21

The red. Longer wavelength.