Question

A student is doing a lab experiment in which she uses diffraction to measure the width of a shaft of her hair. She shines a 530 nm green laser pointer on a single hair, which produces a diffraction pattern on a screen 1.2 m away. The width of the central maximum of the pattern is 14 mm. a. What is the thickness of the hair? (91µm) b. If she chose a wider shaft of hair, how would this change the width of the central maximum? (b): For a single slit, we know that a wider slit gives a narrower pattern; the same is true for the hair.

Answer 1

.09 mm

Step-by-step explanation:

In case of diffraction by single slit with width a the width of central maxima is given below

width = 2 λD/a

where λ is wavelength of light , D is distance of screen , a is width o slit

substituting the given values

14 x 10⁻³ =
`(2*530*10^(-9)*1.2)/(a)`

a = .09 mm

b) If a is greater , width of central maxima will be less wide.