A-level Physics (Advancing Physics)/Diffraction/Worked Solutions

1. What is the width of the central bright fringe on a screen placed 5m from a single slit, where the slit is 0.01m wide and the wavelength is 500 nm?

$$\frac{W}{L} \approx \frac{\lambda}{d}$$

$$\frac{W}{5} \approx \frac{500 \times 10^{-9}}{0.01}$$

W = 250μm, but since this is only half the beam, the beam is 500μm wide.