Concept explainers
How is this pattern different from what you would predict using the Ideas developed in geometrical optics (e.g., light travels in straight lines through slits)?
The presence of minima in a diffraction pattern suggests that diffraction is an interference phenomenon. We can model single-slit diffraction as follows: Consider the slit as consisting of man identical, very narrow, evenly-spaced “slits” that are so close to one another that the edges of these “slits” meet. The interference pattern produced by the light passing through the many “slits” approximates the single-slit diffraction pattern.
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