Wave Nature Of Light Essay

Analysis of the Wave Nature of Light through the Study of Diffraction and Interference Patterns

Deligero, Lawrence1, Maquinto, Charles2, Payoran, John Aldrin3*, Raymundo, Francisco1
1Department of Mining Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
2Department Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
3Deparment of Geodetic Engineering
College of Engineering, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines
*John Aldrin Payoran: [e-mail]

Abstract
In this conducted experiment, the wave-like characteristics of light were studied and observed. This was done using the concepts of interference and diffraction. Interference is exhibited when light passes through narrow slits. Due to constraints, a slit will always be of finite

But in Double-slit Interference, there are now 2 sources of diffracted light which would interfere against each other. This interference causes the dark fringes within the bright fringes.
Possible sources of errors in this experiment might have come from the measurements. Measurements on length in this experiment were done with a ruler, and marking was done with a pen. Due to this, some errors in measurements arise, as using rulers are user dependent. The intensity of the light patterns produced were not too bright making marking fringe patterns hard and possibly inaccurate.

Conclusions
The average experimental wavelength was calculated to be 691.18 nm which gives a percent difference of 6.33% from the theoretical value of 650 nm. By observing the sketches of diffraction pattern with varied slit width, it is seen that as the slid width increases from 0.02 nm to 0.04 nm and then to 0.08 nm, the diffraction envelope gets smaller. This shows the slit width and diffraction envelope is inversely proportional which agrees with their theoretical