Why do maxima and minima occur in interference

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Read more. Post your Learning Need Signup as a Tutor. What are the conditions of maxima and minima in an interference pattern? Maxima and minima are plural forms of maximum and minimum. However, in interference and diffraction maxima refers to the zones where the intensity of the light is maximum and minima when the intensity is minimum.

When if minimum of a wave superimposes on maximum of the other, it results in a destructive When if minimum of a wave superimposes on maximum of the other, it results in a destructive interference and intensity becomes a minimum of interference fringes, while if maxima of a wave superimposes on maxima of another wave or minimum of a wave superimposes on minimum of another wave, intensity becomes maximum.

Comments Dislike Bookmark. Condition for maxima: Path difference between two waves should even multiple of half of wave length. OR The phase difference between two waves are even multiple of Pai radian Condition for Minima: Path difference between two waves is odd multiple of half of wavelength OR phase difference between OR The phase difference between two waves are even multiple of Pai radian Condition for Minima: Path difference between two waves is odd multiple of half of wavelength OR phase difference between two waves are odd multiple of Pai radian read less.

Related Questions. Aryan asked Can you help with the questions on prolog and finite automata? Balaprasad asked Time of the phone call is modeled with the expoential r. Tannu asked Which one is good and easy between B. Sc Life Sciences and B. Sc Bio Chemistry? Design Pattern is a used and tested solution for a known problem. In simple words, you can say a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context The amplitude of the electromagnetic wave is correspondingly diminished to of the wave at the principal maxima, and the light intensity, being proportional to the square of the wave amplitude, is diminished to of the intensity compared to the principal maxima.

As Figure shows, a dark fringe is located between every maximum principal or secondary. As N grows larger and the number of bright and dark fringes increase, the widths of the maxima become narrower due to the closely located neighboring dark fringes. Because the total amount of light energy remains unaltered, narrower maxima require that each maximum reaches a correspondingly higher intensity. Summary Interference from multiple slits produces principal as well as secondary maxima.

As the number of slits is increased, the intensity of the principal maxima increases and the width decreases. Problems Ten narrow slits are equally spaced 0. The width of bright fringes can be calculated as the separation between the two adjacent dark fringes on either side. Find the angular widths of the third- and fourth-order bright fringes from the preceding problem.

For a three-slit interference pattern, find the ratio of the peak intensities of a secondary maximum to a principal maximum. What is the angular width of the central fringe of the interference pattern of a 20 slits separated by?

The rest of this screen would be in shadow. What is actually observed on the right hand screen is an "interference pattern" as indicated below, The explanation is that each slit acts as a source of spherical waves, which "interfere" as they move from left to right as shown above. In the diagram at the top of the page, light reaching P from S 1 and S 2 will travel different distances.

Assuming that the light from the two sources S 1 and S 2 are initially in phase, then due to the path difference S 1 P - S 2 P , at P the two waves will be out of phase. If the path difference is equal to an integral number of wavelengths the waves will interfere constructively, leading to a bright spot on the screen.

The interference pattern shown above was first observed for visible light in by Thomas Young , the experiment is still sometimes called Young's slit experiment. In the above description we have assumed the incident light is monochromatic. If white light containing all the wavelengths in the visible spectrum is used, the maxima for the different wavelengths will occur at slightly different positions y on the screen. In this case an interference pattern will only be observed if the maximum - minimum separation is much larger than the separation between the maxima of the extreme wavelengths in white light red and violet for the same "n".

In the above description we have shown that at certain locations on the screen there will be bright spots whereas at other locations there will be no light - the interference pattern. But exactly how does the light intensity vary as a function of position on the screen? Therefore the E field at P can be written, the product of an amplitude and a sinusoidal time varying wave.

In the case of light waves the frequency of the time varying part is so large that our eyes and most instruments "see" only the ampliutde part. Actually, what we observe is the intensity , which is the square of the amplitude.