Light Interference & the Double Slit Experiment

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Light Interference the Double Slit Experiment

• By Zach Schmidt
• Neekaan Oshidary

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Light A Particle or Wave

• Different tests support different sides of the
  argument
• Today dual theory
• Young Experiment

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Double Slit Analogy
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Particles Through One Slit
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Particles Through Both Slits
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Interference or Not?
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The Experiment

• Components
• Light Source Lasers
• Double Slit Pre-made slits
• Detector Smooth surface

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INTERFERENCE!
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Testing Variables
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Distance and Fringe Width

• w/DC, DIRECT
• Where w fringe width
• D distance between slits and detector
• C constant

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Slit Separation and Fringe Width

• w x sC, INVERSE
• Where w fridge width
• s slit separation
• C constant

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Understanding Inverse relation of slit separation
and fringe width.
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Wavelength and Fringe Width

• w/lC, DIRECT
• Where wfringe width
• l wavelength
• C constant

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Recap of relationships

• w/DC, Distance direct
• wsC, Slit separation inverse
• w/lC, Wavelength direct
• Can we combine these into one larger equation?

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What about Wavelength?

• l (S x W)/D

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Results

• Helium-neon laser
• Our calculation 610.5 nm
• Real value 632.5
• Percent Error 3.5

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Particle Nature of Light

• Light consists of bundles of energy called
  photons
• What would happen if we slowed down the laser, so
  only one photon at a time arrived at the slits?

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Does This Make Any Sense?
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Conclusion

• Light behaves like a wave interference
• We used this property to calculate the wavelength
  of light
• Light also behaves like a particle
• This behavior is described in the dual
  wave/particle theory

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THE END!