Practice Questions/Tutorial
INTERFERENCE OF LIGHT
1. The double slit arrangement is illuminated by light of wavelength 546nm. The slits are 0.12mm
apart and the screen on which interference pattern appears is 55cm away.
a) What is the angular position of (i) first minima and (ii) tenth maxima?
b) What is the separation between two adjacent maxima?
2. Two slits are 0.08 mm apart, and the screen is 2 m away. How far is the third dark fringe located
from the central maximum if λ = 600 nm?
3. In a Young’s interference experiment, the two slits are separated by 0.0250 mm and the incident
light includes two wavelengths: 1 = 510 nm (green) and 2 = 430 nm (blue). The overlapping
interference patterns are observed on a screen 1.50 m from the slits. Calculate the minimum
distance from the center of the screen to a point where a bright fringe of the green light coincides
with a bright fringe of the blue light.
4. Measurements are made of the intensity distribution within the central bright fringe in a Young’s
interference pattern. At a particular value of y, it is found that I/Imax = 0.90 when 600-nm light is
used. What wavelength of light should be used to reduce the relative intensity at the same
location to 64.0% of the maximum intensity?
5. A thin film of oil (n = 1.25) is located on smooth, wet pavement. When viewed perpendicular to
the pavement, the film reflects most strongly red light at 640 nm and reflects no green light at 512
nm. How thick is the oil film?
6. An oil film (n = 1.45) floating on water (n = 1.33) is illuminated by white light at normal incidence.
The film is 280 nm thick. Find (a) the wavelength and color of the light in the visible spectrum
most strongly reflected and (b) the wavelength and color of the light in the spectrum most
strongly transmitted. Explain your reasoning.
7. A material having an index of refraction of 1.30 is used as an antireflective coating on a piece of
glass of refractive index 1.5. Determine the minimum thickness of the film needed to minimize
reflection of 500nm light.
8. A disabled tanker leaks kerosene (n=1.20) into the Persian Gulf, creating a large slick on top of
water (n = 1.33).
(a) If you look straight down from aeroplane on to the region of slick where thickness is
460nm, for which wavelengths of visible light is the reflection is greatest?
(b) If you are scuba diving directly under this region of slick, for which wavelengths of visible
light is the transmitted intensity is strongest?
9. An air wedge is formed between two glass plates separated at one edge by a very fine wire of
circular cross section as shown in Figure. When the wedge is illuminated from above by 600-nm
light and viewed from above, 30 dark fringes are observed. Calculate the diameter d of the wire.
10. Two glass plates 10.0 cm long are in contact at one end and separated at the other end by a
thread with a diameter d = 0.050 0 mm. Light containing the two wavelengths 400 nm and 600 nm
is incident perpendicularly and viewed by reflection. At what distance from the contact point is
the next dark fringe?
11. A broad source of light (wavelength = 680nm) illuminates normally two glass plates 120 mm long
that touch at one end and are separated by a wire 0.048mm in diameter at the other end. How
many bright fringes appear over 120 mm distance?
12. When a liquid is introduced into the air space between the lens and the plate in a Newton’s-rings
apparatus, the diameter of the tenth ring changes from 1.50 to 1.31 cm. Find the index of
refraction of the liquid.
14. In a Newton’s ring experiment, the radius of curvature R of the lens is 5.0m and its diameter is
20mm.
(a) How many rings are produced?
(b) How many rings would be seen if the arrangement is immersed in water (n = 1.33)?
(Assume wavelength = 589nm)
15. In a Newton’s-rings experiment, a plano-convex glass (n =1.52) lens having radius r = 5.00 cm is
placed on a flat plate. When light of wavelength = 650 nm is incident normally, 55 bright rings
are observed, with the last one precisely on the edge of the lens. What is the radius R of curvature
of the convex surface of the lens?
16. Yellow light (wavelength = 589nm) illuminates a Michelson interferometer. How many bright
fringes will be counted as the mirror is moved through 1.0 cm?
17. In a Michelson interferometer 100 fringes cross the field of view when the movable mirror is
displaced by 0.0229 m. Calculate the wavelength of the monochromatic light.
18. In newton’s ring experiment diameter of 15th ring was found to be 0.59 cm & that of 5th ring was
0.336 cm. If the radius of plano-convex lens is 100 cm. Calculate the wavelength of light used.
What happens to ring diameter if air film is replaced with liquid of refractive index 1.5?
Assignment: Theory Questions
1. What is the necessary condition on the path length difference (and phase difference)
between two waves that interfere (A) constructively and (B) destructively ?
2. Explain the Interference phenomena? State the necessary condition to produce interference of
light.
3. Explain the term coherence.
4. Obtain an expression for the fringe-width in the case of interference of light of wavelength
λ, from a double-slit of slit-separation d. Prove that in this case of interference dark and bright
bands are of equal width. In Young’s double slit experiment, what change occurs to the fringe
width if the wavelength of the laser light is changed from green to red?
5. Derive an expression for the intensity of light on screen in Young’s double slit experiment by
phasor method and with the help of a neat diagram.
6. Draw a schematic plot of the intensity of light in a double-slit interference against phase-
difference (and path-difference).
7. Discuss the origin of circular fringes in Newton’s rings?
8. Obtain an expression for the radius of mTH order bright ring in the case of Newton’s rings.
9. Write the condition for maxima for Newton’s rings (Given: the thickness of the air film in between
the glass plate and the lens = t). Prove with proper diagram that the diameter of the bright circular
fringe(s) in a Newton ring set up is proportional to the square root(s) of the odd natural numbers.
10. Prove that the diameter of nth dark circular fringe in the Newton’s ring experiment is proportional
to the square root of the natural number.
11. Explain Michelson’s interferometer. Explain how microscopic length measurements are made
in this.
Conceptual Questions ( Open Book Pattern)
1. To demonstrate the interference of waves, Thomas Young allowed light from a single illuminated slit
to fall on a pair of narrowly spaced slits. Explain
a. Why light from two separate lamp bulbs can never produce an interference pattern
b. Why double slits used as above give an interference pattern
How would the interference pattern differ if
c. The double slits had been closer together
2. Why must two loudspeakers be producing sounds of exactly the same frequency in order for us to
hear the effects of interference?
3. Two loudspeakers are placed 4 m apart for an open-air concert. They are playing back a flute
sounding a note of 680 Hz. Members of the audience sit in a row, 20 m from the loudspeakers, parallel
to the line between the loudspeakers.
Take the speed of sound as 340 m s–1.
Describe, as precisely as possible, what different people in the row will hear.
4. When a spherical surface is put in contact with an optically flat plate, circular interference patterns,
called Newton's rings, can be observed in reflected light. Why there is a dark spot at the center of
the pattern of Newton's rings?
5. When sunlight reflects from a thin film of soapy water (held against the force of gravity), the film
appears multicolored at the bottom and dark at the top. Why?
OR
The top portion of a soapy water film on a vertical loop appears black when viewed by reflected
light. Why?
6. In Young’s double slit experiment, what changes would occur to the fringe width if the wavelength of
the incident laser light is changed from green to red?
7. Explain what happens to Newton’s rings when (i) monochromatic light source is replaced by white
light source (ii) the plane glass plate is replaced by silver glass plate (iii) the centre of plano convex lens
is not in contact with the plane glass plate and (iv) some oil is placed between the glass plate and lens.
8. What is the role of compensating glass plate in Michelson interferometer?
9. A camera lens is covered with a nonreflective coating that eliminates the reflection of perpendicularly
incident green light. If the light were incident on the nonreflective coating at 45°, rather than
perpendicularly, it would not be eliminated by the coating and an observer would see it.
10. Why it is not possible to see interference fringes when the wavelength of the light is greater than the
distance between the slits.
11. Can two independent light sources (say sodium lamps or candles) produce observable interference
pattern on screen? Why should the distance between the two coherent sources be small and the
distance between sources and screen be large?
12. Two coherent light waves arrive at a particular point on a screen. The optical path difference
between the waves is 3m. Determine the nature of interference at the point if the wavelength of the
wave is 3900 Å.
13. If we are to observe interference in a thin film, why must the film not be very thick (with thickness
only on the order of a few wavelengths)?
