A typical red laser pointer has a wavelength of 650 nm. Suppose we wanted to test the wave nature of light by carefully cutting two parallel slits in a dark plastic sheet. We would then shine the laser through the slits onto a wall located 1 m beyond the sheet. (a) Determine the slit spacing needed so that the bright spots on the wall would be discernible with 1 cm spacing. (b) Is this a feasible “home experiment”? Is it possible to cut slits with that separation using typical household tools? (c) Suppose we wanted to test the wave nature of sound in a similar manner, by placing two small speakers driven in-phase near each other, separated by 40 cm, both facing a wall 2 m distant. If we used a 1.0 kHz tone, determine the distance between points along the wall that would exhibit enhanced sound. (d) Suppose we wanted the soundenhanced points to be separated by only 1.75 m to render this experiment feasible. Estimate an audible frequency f and use it to determine a speaker separation distance d that would accomplish this. (e) Is this a feasible “home experiment”?

A typical red laser pointer has a wavelength of 650 nm. Suppose we wanted to test the wave nature of light by carefully cutting two parallel slits in a dark plastic sheet. We would then shine the laser through the slits onto a wall located 1 m beyond the sheet. (a) Determine the slit spacing needed so that the bright spots on the wall would be discernible with 1 cm spacing. (b) Is this a feasible “home experiment”? Is it possible to cut slits with that separation using typical household tools? (c) Suppose we wanted to test the wave nature of sound in a similar manner, by placing two small speakers driven in-phase near each other, separated by 40 cm, both facing a wall 2 m distant. If we used a 1.0 kHz tone, determine the distance between points along the wall that would exhibit enhanced sound. (d) Suppose we wanted the soundenhanced points to be separated by only 1.75 m to render this experiment feasible. Estimate an audible frequency f and use it to determine a speaker separation distance d that would accomplish this. (e) Is this a feasible “home experiment”?