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Youngs Writeup p4 PDF
Youngs Writeup p4 PDF
Prelab Exercise
Please read the Procedure section and try to understand the physics involved and how the ex-
perimental procedure works. These questions should help you to be prepared for a productive
experience in lab. Complete this exercise and bring your responses to lab with you.
2. You will use both red and green lasers in performing the experiment. The wavelengths of the
light the lasers produce is unknown. Nevertheless, both lasers emit visible light, so you know
a range of wavelengths which must include them. What is that wavelength range (in nm)?
3. Knowing the colors of the two lasers, can you narrow down your estimate of the two laser
wavelengths? Calling the wavelengths λRed and λGreen , make a rough estimate for of each
wavelength (in nm).
4. You will make a slit pair using two razor blades in close contact. Clearly, the resulting slit
separation will be much less than, say, a centimeter. But it will also be much larger than,
say, a micron (micro-meter). Make a rough estimate about how wide your slit spacing will
be.
5. When you shine the red laser through your slit pair at a screen two meters away, what do
you expect to see? The beam diameter of the laser is roughly 2 mm. Draw a sketch of the
image you expect to see on the screen. Indicate the distance we are calling “fringe spacing.”
6. Using your estimated values for wavelength and slit spacing, what fringe spacing do you
expect to see? In answering this question, develop an equation for the fringe spacing.
7. Do you think you can measure this expected fringe spacing with just a ruler?
8. Since we can’t compute the slit spacing without the wavelength of the laser, and vice versa,
and we don’t know either of them, the procedure asks you to compute the laser wavelength
from your observations of the image pattern produced by putting a wire in the laser beam.
Explain how putting a single obstacle (like a wire) in the beam is similar to putting a slit
pair in the beam.
9. When you conduct the experiment, you will need to compute wavelength from fringe spacing
and wire diameter. What equation will you use?
10. When you conduct the experiment, you will need to compute slit spacing from wavelength
and fringe spacing. What equation will you use?
• Projection screen.
• Ruler.
• Laser mount.
• Slide mount.
• Enameled wire.
• Dowel.
• Wire cutters.
• Cellophane tape.
Objective
The objective of this experiment is to investigate double-slit interference of light. You will exploit
the relationship among slit spacing, wavelength, and fringe spacing to measure the wavelength of
light starting with only a ruler as a standard of length. The investigation will also illustrate how a
well-characterized slit pair can be used to determine the wavelength of an unknown light source.
The procedure illustrates how averaging of multiple measurements can increase the precision of a
measurement.
Procedures
1. Prepare a slit pair.
• Collect a thin film of carbon black on part of a microscope slide by holding the slide in the
orange part of a candle flame. Above the flame, the combustion gases contain mostly H2 O
and CO2 , but inside the orange part of the flame, combustion is incomplete and there are
many carbon atoms available to precipitate onto the relatively cool glass of the slide. While
blackening the slide, keep it moving so as not to overheat it, and deposit just enough carbon
to make the slide opaque. You want as thin a film as you can get while making the slide
nearly opaque.
• Scribe a double slit in the carbon film with a pair of razor blades pinched tightly together.
Use the corners of the two blades and be sure that both corners are in contact with the glass
before making a quick stroke across the glass.
• Measuring the spacing between a single pair of fringes will be inaccurate, but if you measure
the distance covered by many fringes and then divide by the number of fringes you can make a
more accurate measurement of the basic fringe spacing. By measuring the spacing of different
fringes many times and averaging, you can reduce your error even further. If you are really
ambitious, you could repeat the measurement for more than one screen range.
• Make a data table with columns for measured screen range, number of fringes counted, the
measured width of the counted fringe array and the computed fringe spacing. Be careful
about what you observe here. There are really two patterns of fringes on the screen: there’s
a single-slit pattern due to the width of you slits, and there’s a double-slit pattern due to the
separation of the slits. You want the double-slit pattern; it’s the smaller of the two. Check
your measured slit spacing against the estimate you prepared for the pre-lab to convince
yourself you are measuring the right thing.
At this point it should be clear that you do not have enough information to determine either the
wavelength of the laser or the slit spacing. To find the slit spacing, you need a laser of known
wavelength. The next few steps describe a procedure for calibrating the wavelength of the green
laser. You will then use the green laser to measure the slit separation. With a known slit separation
you can find the wavelength of the red laser.
The idea is to use a short piece of wire of known diameter to create an interference pattern similar
to the double-slit pattern. A wire placed across a laser beam in place of the slit pair will also
produce an interference pattern. Light passing around the two sides of the wire will interfere with
each other just as light passing around the two sides of the barrier between the two slits. But
superimposed on top of that double-slit pattern will be the main beam plus an interference pattern
due to light farther from the wire. The wire interference pattern may be somewhat more difficult
to interpret, but the primary fringe spacing will obey the same law as the double slit.
3. Measure the wire thickness.
• Wrap a wire around a piece of dowel until you have (at least) a centimeter or so of wrapping.
Take care to make the turns tight against each other. Count the number of turns.
• Divide the length of the wrapping by the number of turns to get the wire diameter.
• This step will take some care. The more closely spaced your turns and the more of them you
can wrap, the more accurate will be your result. It helps to tape the end of the wire to the
dowel before you start wrapping. Don’t lose count!
• Use a similar procedure to measure the fringe spacing. Make several measurements with
different numbers of fringes, and average your results to derive a measurement of the green
laser wavelength.
• Make several appropriate measurements and average your results to derive a value for the slit
spacing.
Final Report
For the homework portion of this lab exercise, prepare a brief report of your procedure and results.
This report is not intended to be a complex or long-winded document, but it should give you an
opportunity to organize your thoughts about the experiment and to present a coherent account of
it. Use the principles and typographical standards we’ve developed in the “evaluative experience”
to be direct and organized. Strive for the brevity that comes with being as direct as you can be.
Include what you need to in order to explain yourself completely—no more, no less. Here is an
outline of what you should include.
Title
Author
Although your lab work was collaborative, please write your own report. Indicate the names of
your lab partners.
Abstract
The abstract is a very brief, one paragraph précis of what you did and what your results were. It
should not be more than 100 words—just enough to let a reader know what the paper is about.
The only quantitative information should be the wavelengths of your two lasers, the wire diameter
and the slit width.
Introduction
This experiment was first conducted in 1801 and is considered one of the landmark experiments
in physics. Why is this experiment important? Why do we care enough to repeat it over 200
years later? Briefly explain the physics of interference from a double slit, developing the basic
mathematical relationship you exploit in the experiment. You don’t need to explain interference—
that’s background your reader should understand—but you should address all issues pertinent to