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Julia Nguyen
Doug Hendricks
Light Waves Lab
19 February 2017

A wave is a defined as a disturbance that travels through a medium. It was argued that light is not
a wave because it does not diffract, and since it does not, it does not fit the characteristics of what
a wave is. However, light did diffract but not in a huge way. Upon closer inspection, the lines of
a paper blocking light would, in actuality, not be straight due to diffraction. Although it proves
that light does diffract, it does not prove that light is a wave. The purpose of the lab was to derive
an equation in which it was to prove that light was a wave and then test it by using that equation
with different colored lasers.

In ocean waves, if there is a wall with an

opening, the waves that do not go through the
wall will bounce back. The waves that pass
the opening spread out. The distance from
each wave is .

The rules for diffraction are:

1. If > opening, then there will
be a medium-large amount of
diffraction.
2. If < opening, then theres
only a small amount of diffraction.
3. If <<<< opening, there will be so little diffraction that visually, it would appear
there would be no diffraction at all.
These rules for diffraction explains why to the naked eye, light did not appear to diffract.

A scientist in the 1800s named Thomas

Young proved that light was a wave through
his double slit experiment. This lab was a
recreation of it because the proof that light
is a wave is through the diffraction grating.
The lab is measuring the distance apart from
each light.

In the visual to the right, light is shined at a

wall, where there would be two slits. The
distance from the wall to viewing screen is
L. The distance from both slits is d. The
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distance from the center spot to the 1st diffracted bright spot is known as x. It was assumed
initially that if light were shown, the center spot would be dark, but the exact opposite had
occurred.
Derivation of double slit interference equation:
The triangle where d1 and d2 were stated is known as sin= x/h.
The triangle connected to that triangle is sin=/d.
So x/h = /d.

The reason for why the center point was a

bright spot, rather than dark, is because if d1
= d2 then that is constructive interference
which would cancel out. The reason for why
a spot would be dark is because of
destructive interference.

The diffracted bright spot is where d2-d1= .

With the equation, x/h= /d, found from the

derivation, it would be used to find the
wavelength of the three different-colored
lasers.

In the duplication of Thomas Youngs experiment, a

person held a laser in one hand with a diffraction
grating in the other hand. The difference from the
diffraction grating to the wall/viewing screen is L.
The manufacturers of the diffraction grating state
that d = 1 micrometer which is equivalent to 1x10^-6
m.

Because it is not guaranteed that the person holding

the laser is pointing at exactly 90 degrees from the
wall, the distance from the two diffracted bright
spots would be measured then divided in half which
will be x.

The three different colored lasers were red, blue, and green. For L, the diffraction grating was 52
cm away from the wall each time. The diffraction grating given was filled with fingerprints prior
to the lab.
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Green:
With the green laser shooting through the diffraction grating that was 52 cm away from the wall,
the difference between the first diffraction bright spot and second was 60.5 cm (0.605 m ).
The x = 0.605/2 = 0.3025 m
x/h= /d was used in order to find .
= x*d/h (0.3025 m)(1 x10^-6 m) / ( sqr( (0.3025 m)^2 + (0.52 m)^2)) =
503 nm

Blue:
With the blue laser, the difference between the first diffraction bright spot and second was 39.8
cm (0.398 m).
The x = 0.398 m / 2 = 0.199 m
x/h= /d was used in order to find .
= x*d/h (0.199 m)(1 x10^-6 m)/ (sqr( (0.199 m)^2 + (0.52 m)^2)) = 357
nm

Red:
With the blue laser, the difference between the first diffraction bright spot and second was 72.7
cm (0.727 m).
The x = 0.727 m / 2 = 0.3635 m
x/h= /d was used in order to find .
= x*d/h (0.3635m)(1 x10^-6 m)/ (sqr( (0.3635 m)^2 + (0.52 m)^2)) =
573 nm

The actual numbers for the wavelengths of each color were:

Green- 532 nm, Blue - Range 405 +- 10 nm, and Red- Range 655 + - 25 nm.

The results compared to the actual wavelengths were incredibly different. A possible reasoning
was that the diffraction grating was so dirty that the fingerprints on the grating became gratings
as well, resulting in different diffraction bright spots. To get better results, the diffraction grating
should not be held by grating itself, rather the piece of tape along the edge for it to be held.