Question

You overhear the following conversation

Ty: “We created a diffraction pattern on the distant screen by illuminating a pair of long narrow slits with green light. The next instruction wants us to make the bright fringes of the diffraction envelope expand away from the center. I think we should find a different laser to do this – a red one would work well.”

Sarah: “No, we shouldn’t use a different laser, we should just move the screen we’re making the observation on farther away from the light source.”

Hannah: “That might work, Sarah, as long as we don’t move where the slits are. We could also change out the slits for two that have the same width but are closer together.”

Timmy: “Hannah is right that we should change the slits, but we should keep the same distance between the slits and make each slit narrower.”

Who is correct and why?

Answer 1