Question

On a sunny summer day, with the sun overhead, you can stand under a tree and look on the ground at the pattern of light that has passed through gaps between the leaves. You may see illuminated circles of varying brightness. Why are there circles, when the gaps between the leaves have irregular shapes

Answer 1

he pattern is circular because the leaves have rounded spaces that when added at a great distance give a circular shape in far-field diffraction or Fraunhofer

Step-by-step explanation:

When the sunlight reaches the trees it suffers a diffraction phenomenon if the leaves are close together,

This diffraction spectrum when we see it near the leaves has the shape of the edge of each leaf this diffraction is of the near field type, when we move away from the leaves the different patterns add up, resulting in a far field diffraction, this diffraction it has a characteristic shape, regardless of the details of the initial shapes.

In general, if the initial shapes are slits, the pattern is of the lines type, but if the pattern has circular or rounded characteristics, the resulting pattern is circles of different sizes depending on the space between the initial openings.

Consequently the pattern is circular because the leaves have rounded spaces that when added at a great distance give a circular shape in far-field diffraction or Fraunhofer