Tutorial/Assignment Sheet
Module I: Interference
Part I: Definition and Interference by division of wavefront
Date of Issue: Last date of submission:
1. What is interference of light? Write the important conditions for getting a sustained interference
pattern on the screen.
2. The ratio of intensities of two waves that produce interference pattern is 16:1. Deduce the ratio
of maximum to minimum intensities in the fringe pattern.
Young’s double slit experiment
3. Distance between two slits is 0.1 mm and the width of the fringes formed on the screen is 5 mm.
If the distance between the screen and slits is one meter, what would be the wavelength of light?
4. In the Young’s double slit experiment, light waves coming from both slits have their phase
shifted by half a wavelength. How would the fringe pattern change at the screen? How would the
pattern change if the light coming from only one of the slits had its phase shifted by half a
wavelength?
5. In the Young’s double slit experiment, the angle that locates the second dark fringe on either side
of the central bright fringe is 5.4°. Find the ratio of the slit separation d to the wavelength of
light.
6. In the Young’s double slit experiment, consider two points on the screen, one corresponding to a
path difference of 5000 Å and the other corresponding to a path difference of 40000 Å. Find the
wavelengths (in the visible region) which correspond to constructive and destructive
interference.
7. A light source which emits light of two wavelengths λ 1=4300 Å and λ2=5100 Å, is being used in
a double slit interference experiment. If the distance between the two slits is 0.025 mm and
screen is at a distance 1.5 m, calculate the separation between the third order bright fringes
formed due to the two wavelengths.
8. Two wavelengths λ1 and λ2 are used in double slit experiment. If λ 1 = 430 nm, what is the value
of λ2 so that the sixth order bright fringe due to λ1 falls on the fourth order bright fringe due to λ2.
9. Laser light of wavelength 630 nm incident on a pair of slits produces an interference pattern in
which the bright fringes are separated by 8.1 mm. A second light produces an interference
pattern in which the fringes are separated by 7.2 mm. Calculate the wavelength of the second
light.
10. In an experiment using sodium light of wavelength 5890 Å, an interference pattern was obtained
in which 20 equally spaced fringes occupied 2.30 cm on the screen. On replacing sodium lamp
with another monochromatic source of a different wavelength with no other changes, 30 fringes
were found to occupy 2.80 cm on the screen. Calculate the wavelength of light from this source.
11. In young’s double slit experiment, a source of light of wavelength 4200 Å is used to obtain
interference fringes of width 0.64 × 10-2 m. What should be the wavelength of the light source to
obtain fringes 0.46 × 10-2 m wide, if the distance between screen and slits is reduced to half the
initial value?
12. An eye piece placed at distance of 120 cm from the source and one has to move the eye through
a distance of 1.9 cm for observing 20 fringes. Calculate the wavelength of light, if the distance
between two slits is 0.06 cm.
Fresnel’s Biprism
13. Which one is better in terms of the interference pattern obtained on the screen, Young’s double
slit experiment or Fresnel’s biprism. Explain the reason.
14. A biprism is placed at a distance of 10 cm from the slit. The fringe width at 100 cm from the
biprism for wavelength of 589.6 nm is 0.95 mm. Find out the distance between two coherent
sources.
15. A Fresnel biprism arrangement is set with sodium light (λ=5893Å) and in the field of view of the
eye-piece we get 62 fringes. How many fringes shall we get if we replace the source by mercury
lamp using (a) green filter (λ=5461Å) (b) violet filter (λ=4358Å).