PROPERTIES of WAVES

DIFFRACTION


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Diffraction of water waves
Water waves bend around
corners
The bending of waves around a barrier is
called diffraction.
Shadow
region
Shadow
region
Shadow region
Diffraction
Single slit diffraction
2
Diffraction through an opening:


Amount of diffraction 1
width of the opening
Amount of diffraction

The narrower the opening, the greater the diffraction.
Diffraction and gaps
3
Christiaan Huygens
A Dutch mathematician,
astronomer and physicist who
invented the first pendulum
clock, developed
mathematical relationships of
circular motion and supported
and developed the wave
theory of light.
4
Huygens explains diffraction
Wave fronts
Small circular wavelets are produced
by each point on the wave front
Huygens explanation
5
The small wave fronts that spread out from
each point on a wave front form a new
wave front on the envelope of these
secondary wave fronts.
When straight wave fronts pass the edge of
a boundary they continue in the forward
direction.

6
The wavelets starting at the edge of the
shadow region are able to spread out into the
shadow region because there are no other
wave fronts to interfere destructively and
cancel the sideways contribution.
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Huygens explains diffraction
Single slit diffraction of light:
Broad central band flanked by
alternating bright and dark
stripes of constructive and
destructive interference from
the single slit.
Single slit diffraction
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Broad band with fringes
Viewing a vertical light
source through a narrow
single slit.
Broad
Fringes
The degree of diffraction:
w

x
Where w is the
width of the slit.
The diffraction of light clearly demonstrates
the wave nature of light.
Diffraction - widths & frequencies
9