Professional Documents
Culture Documents
We'll start with a fast, but pretty low quality double-slit out of paper.
What you need is:
sharp scissors
a black marker
1. Take the marker and paint a small area black in the middle of the upper half. This is
where we'll cut two slits into the paper. The black paint will prevent the laser from
shining through the white paper.
2. Fold the paper horizontal at the half of the black area.
3. Now cut from the edge a perpendicular slit into the black area. Then try to cut as close
as you can parallel to the first cut and rip out the piece of paper in between to create a
narrow slit. Repeat the same about half a millimeter next to the first slit.
4. Unfold the paper and have a look at your double-slit. If it doesn't have a nice straight
shape, start again with 1.
Aluminum foil allows us to cut a lot more precise and closer slits. This will create a cleaner
and wider interference pattern, because the distance from the middle ( called "0. maximum")
to the outer maxima ( 1. / 2. / 3. / ... / n. maximum ) increases the smaller the distance
between the slits is.
For the double-slit out of aluminum foil you need:
an x-acto knife
sticky tape
a magnifying glass
Use the x-acto knife to cut two straight slits as close together as possible without damaging
the tiny strip of foil between them. A magnifying glass is very helpful to cut more precisely.