Wave Interference
|
About
Topics
- Waves
- Sound
Description
Make waves with a dripping faucet, audio speaker, or laser! Add a second source or a pair of slits to create an interference pattern.
Sample Learning Goals
- You can watch water, sound, and light waves move and see how they are related. All can be represented by a sinewave.
- What does this sinewave represent for these three different phenomena?
- Use multiple sources with different spacing and see a changing interference pattern.
- Find points of constructive and destructive interference by eye, and by using the detectors.
- Put up a barrier to see how the waves move through one or two slits. What sort of pattern do the slits create? How can you change this pattern?
- In the light panel, predict the locations of the fringes that appear on the screen using d sin(θ) = mλ. Use the tape measure to verify your predictions.
Keywords
For Teachers
Teacher-Submitted Activities
Translations
Related Simulations
Software Requirements
Windows | Macintosh | Linux |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later
|
OS 10.5 or later Sun Java 1.5.0_19 or later
|
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later
|
Credits
Design Team | Third-party Libraries | Thanks To |
---|---|---|
|