VELS VIDYASHRAM SR.

SEC SCHOOL
PHYSICS
WAVE OPTICS
STD XII
1 Mark:
1)When monochromatic light travels from one medium to another, its
wavelength changes but frequency remains the same. Explain. [CBSE
Delhi 2011]
2)Light of wavelength 5000 Å propagating in air gets partly reflected from
the surface of water. How will the wavelengths and frequencies of the
reflected and refracted light be affected? [CBSE Delhi 2015]
3)Why are coherent soruces required to create interference of light? [CBSE
(F) 2009]
4) Differentiate between a ray and a wavefront. [CBSE Delhi 2009]
5)What type of wavefront will emerge from a (i) point source and (ii) distant
light source? [CBSE Delhi 2009]
6)What will be the effect on interference fringes if red light is replaced by
blue light?
[CBSE Delhi 2013]
7)Unpolarised light of intensity I is passed through a polaroid. What is the
intensity of the light transmitted by the polaroid? [CBSE (F) 2009]
8)If the angle between the pass axes of a polariser and analyser is 45°.
Write the ratio of the intensities of original light and the transmitted light
after passing through the analyser. [CBSE Delhi 2009]
9)Which of the following waves can be polarized (i) Heat waves (ii) Sound
waves? Give reason to support your answer. [CBSE Delhi 2013]
10)At what angle of incidence should a light beam strike a glass slab of
refractive index√ 3 , such that the reflected and refracted rays are
perpendicular to each other? [CBSE Delhi 2009]
11)How does the fringe width of interference fringes change, when the
whole apparatus of Young’s experiment is kept in water (refractive index
4/3)? [CBSE Delhi 2011] [HOTS]
12)In what way is the diffraction from each slit related to interference
pattern in double slit experiment? [CBSE Bhubaneshwar 2015]
13)How does the angular separation between fringes in single-slit
diffraction experiment change when the distance of separation between the
slit and screen is doubled? [CBSE (AI) 2012]
14) In a single-slit diffraction experiment, the width of the slit is made
double the original width. How does this affect the size and intensity of the
central diffraction band? [CBSE (AI) 2012]
15)Why is the interference pattern not detected, when two coherent
sources are far apart? [HOTS]
16)No interference pattern is detected when two coherent sources are
infinitely close to each other. Why? [HOTS]
17)Give reason for the following:
The value of the Brewster angle for a transparent medium is different for
lights of different colours. [HOTS]
18)Two polaroids are placed with their optic axis perpendicular to each
other. One of them is rotated through 45°, what is the intensity of light
emerging from the second polaroid if Io is the intensity of unpolarised light?
[CBSE Sample Paper 2017]

2 Mark:
19)When are two objects just resolved? Explain. How can the resolving
power of a compound microscope be increased? Use relevant formula to
support your answer. [CBSE Delhi 2017]
20) Find the intensity at a point on a screen in Young’s double slit
experiment where the interfering waves of equal intensity have a path
difference of (i) λ/4
and (ii) λ/3 . [CBSE (F) 2017]

21)Unpolarised light is passed through a polaroid P1. When this polarised

beam passes through another polaroid P2 and if the pass axis of P2 makes
angle θ with the pass axis of P1, then write the expression for the polarised
beam passing through P2. Draw a plot showing the variation
of intensity when θ varies from 0 to 2π. [CBSE (AI) 2017]
3 Mark:
22)Draw the diagrams to show the behaviour of plane wavefronts as they
(a) pass through a thin prism, and (b) pass through a thin convex lens and
(c) reflect by a concave mirror. [CBSE Bhubaneshwar 2015]
23)What is the shape of the wavefront in each of the following cases: (a)
light diverging from a point source. (b) light emerging out of a convex lens
when a point source is placed at its focus. (c) the portion of a wavefront of
light from a distant star intercepted by the earth.[CBSE Delhi 2009]
24)Explain the following, giving reasons:
(i) When monochromatic light is incident on a surface separating two
media, the reflected
and refracted light both have the same frequency as the incident frequency.
(ii) When light travels from a rarer to a denser medium, the speed
decreases. Does this decrease in speed imply a reduction in the energy
carried by the wave? (iii) In the wave picture of light, intensity of light is
determined by the square of the amplitude of the wave. What determines
the intensity in the photon picture of light? [CBSE Central 2016]
25)(a) Write the necessary conditions to obtain sustained interference
fringes.
Also write the expression for the fringe width. (b) In Young’s double slit
experiment, plot a graph showing the variation of fringe width versus the
distance of the screen from the plane of the slits keeping other parameters
same. What information can one obtain from the slope of the curve? (c)
What is the effect on the fringe width if the distance between the slits is
reduced keeping other parameters same? [CBSE Patna 2015]
26)For a single slit of width “a”, the first minimum of the interference pattern
of a monochromatic light of wavelength λoccurs at an angle of λ/α.At the
same angle of λ/α, we get a maximum for two narrow slits separated by a
distance “a”. Explain. [CBSE Delhi 2014]
27)In the experiment on diffraction due to a single slit, show that (i) the
intensity of diffraction fringes decreases as the order (n) increases. (ii)
angular width of the central maximum is twice that of the first order
secondary maximum. [CBSE (F) 2011]
28)(a) Describe briefly, with the help of suitable diagram, how the
transverse nature of light can be demonstrated by the phenomenon of
polarisation of light. [CBSE (AI) 2014]
(b) When unpolarised light passes from air to a transparent medium, under
what condition does the reflected light get polarised? [CBSE Delhi 2011]
29)(a) The light from a clear blue portion of the sky shows a rise and fall of
intensity when viewed through a polaroid which is rotated. Describe, with
the help of a suitable diagram, the basic phenomenon/process which
occurs to explain this observation.
(b) Show how light reflected from a transparent medium gets polarised.
Hence deduce Brewster’s law.
OR
An unpolarised light is incident on the boundary between two transparent
media. State the condition when the reflected wave is totally plane
polarised. Find out the expression for the angle of incidence in this case.
[CBSE Delhi 2014, 2018, Bhubaneshwar 2015]
30)State Brewster’s law.
The value of Brewster angle for a transparent medium is different for light
of different colours. Give reason. [CBSE Delhi 2016]
31)Explain why the intensity of light coming out of a polaroid does not
change irrespective of the orientation of the pass axis of the polaroid.
[CBSE East 2016]
32)i) Light passes through two polaroids P1 and P2 with axis of P2 making
an angle θ with the pass axis of P1. For what value of θ is the intensity of
emergent light zero?
(ii) A third polaroid is placed between P1 and P2 with its pass axis making
an angle β with the pass axis of P1. Find a value of β for which the intensity
of light emerging from P2 is Io /8 where Io is the intensity of light on the
polaroid P1.
33)Draw the intensity distribution for (i) the fringes produced in interference,
and (ii) the diffraction bands produced due to single slit. Write two points of
difference between the phenomena of interference and diffraction. [CBSE
(F) 2017]
34)Use Huygen’s principle to explain the formation of diffraction pattern due
to a single slit illuminated by a monochromatic source of light. When the
width of slit is made double the original width, how this affect the size and
intensity of the central diffraction band? [CBSE Delhi 2012]
35)(a) In Young’s double slit experiment, two slits are 1 mm apart and the
screen is placed 1 m away from the slits. Calculate the fringe width when
light of wavelength 500 nm is used. (b) What should be the width of each
slit in order to obtain 10 maxima of the double slits pattern within the central
maximum of the single slit pattern? [CBSE East 2016]
36)In the diffraction due to a single slit experiment, the aperture of the slit is
3 mm. If monochromatic light of wavelength 620 nm is incident normally on
the slit, calculate the separation between the first order minima and the 3rd
order maxima on one side of the screen. The distance between the slit and
the screen is 1.5 m. [CBSE 2019 (55/1/1)]
37)A beam of light consisting of two wavelengths, 800 nm and 600 nm is
used to obtain the interference fringes in a Young’s double slit experiment
on a screen placed 1.4 m away. If the two slits are separated by 0.28 mm,
calculate the least distance from the central bright maximum where the
bright fringes of the two wavelengths coincide. [CBSE (AI) 2012]
38) (a) Assume that the light of wavelength 6000 Å is coming from a star.
Find the limit of resolution of a telescope whose objective has a diameter of
250 cm.
(b) Two slits are made 1 mm apart and the screen is placed 1 m away.
What should be the width of each slit to obtain 10 maxima of the double slit
pattern within the central maximum of the single slit pattern? [CBSE
Guwahati 2015]
39)(a) Why are coherent sources necessary to produce a sustained
interference pattern?
(b) In Young’s double slit experiment using monochromatic light of
wavelength λ, the intensity of light at a point on the screen where path
difference is λ, is K units. Find out the intensity of light at a point where
path difference is λ/3 . [CBSE Delhi 2012]
40)Distinguish between polarised and unpolarised light. Does the intensity
of polarised light emitted by a polaroid depend on its orientation? Explain
briefly.
The vibrations in a beam of polarised light make an angle of 60° with the
axis of the polaroid sheet. What percentage of light is transmitted through
the sheet? [CBSE (F) 2016]
41)Find an expression for intensity of transmitted light when a polaroid
sheet is rotated between two crossed polaroids. In which position of the
polaroid sheet will the transmitted intensity be maximum? [CBSE Delhi
2015]
42)Three identical polaroid sheets P1, P2 and P3 are oriented so that the
pass axis of P2 and P3 are inclined at angles of 60° and 90° respectively
with the pass axis of P1. A monochromatic source
S of unpolarised light of intensity I0 is kept in front of the polaroid sheet P1
as shown in the figure. Determine the intensities of light as observed by the
observer at O, when polaroid P3 is rotated with respect to P2 at angles θ =
30° and 60°. [CBSE North 2016]

43)Two wavelengths of sodium light 590 nm and 596 nm are used, in turn,
to study the diffraction taking place at a single slit of aperture 2 × 10-4m.
The distance between the slit and the screen is 1.5 m. Calculate the
separation between the positions of the first maxima of the diffraction
pattern obtained in the two cases. [CBSE Delhi 2013]
44)(i) State law of Malus.
(ii) Draw a graph showing the variation of intensity (I) of polarised light
transmitted by an analyser with angle (θ) between polariser and analyser.
(iii) What is the value of refractive index of a medium of polarising angle
60°? [CBSE Central 2016]
45)The intensity at the central maxima (O) in a Young’s double slit
experiment is Io. If the distance OP equals one-third of the fringe width of
the pattern, show that the intensity at point P would be Io /40 [CBSE (F)
2011, 2012]

46)Consider a two slit interference arrangements such that the distance of

the screen from the slits is half the distance between the [Link] the
value of D in terms of l such that the first minima on the screen fall at a
distance Dfrom the centre O. [CBSE Sample Paper 2017]