Diffraction Gratings

Question 1

Diffraction

Answer 1

The tendency of a wave to spread out in all directions, transferring energy to its surroundings as it does so

Question 2

Diffraction Grating

Answer 2

A flat plane object. It has a series of regular lines formed on it that block parts of an advancing wave-front.

Question 3

Superposition

Answer 3

The adding together of a wave displacements that occurs when waves from two or more separate sources overlap at any given location in space. The displacements simply add mathematically

Question 4

Path diffrence

Answer 4

The difference in length between two rays, e.g one from a particular grating gap to a given point in space and the ray from the next-door grating gap to the same point

Question 5

Interference pattern

Answer 5

A stationary pattern that can result from the superposition of waves travelling in different directions, provided they are coherent

Question 6

Coherence

Answer 6

To be coherent, waves must share the same frequency and same wavelength and have a constant phase difference