PHYS1220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Wavefront, Diffraction, Wave
10 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Waves move out in a spherical fashion. Every point on a wavefront ab may be considered as a source of tiny wavelets spread out in the forward direction at the speed of the wave itself. The new wavefront sd is the summation of all the wavelets and is tangential to individual wavelets. Supportive of the wave theory of light: such as rocks on the beach, waves will move to either side of the rock. Is not normally observed with large aperture optics (such as windows) but visible with smaller openings such as pinholes. The light source pointed at a spherical object produces a bright spot in the centre of the shadow: constructive interference of the light wavefront. Huygens" principle is consistent with snell"s law of refraction. If light is a particle, when light travels through two thin slits on a screen, they will produce 2 slits behind the screen.
