Question

Domestic cats have vertical pupils. Imagine a cat is observing two small birds sitting side-by-side on a telephone wire. If the slit width of the cat's pupils is a = 0.550 mm and the average wavelength of the ambient light is λ = 519 nm, what is the angular resolution (in rad) for the two birds?

Answer 1

To solve this problem we will apply the concepts related to angular resolution based on wavelength and the slit width at this case of the cat's pupils. This relationship is given as,

`\theta = (\lambda)/(a)`

Here,

`\lambda` = Wavelength

a = Slit width

`\theta = (519*10^(-9)m)/(0.55*10^(-3)m)`

`\theta = 9.43*10^(-4) Rad`

Therefore the angular resolution is
`9.43*10^(-4)rad`