A light is shone through a diffraction grating of slit spacing 4.5x10^5 lines per metre. The incident wavelength is 650nm. Find the angle produced by the incident light and the 2nd order maximum.

In the question you are given the slit spacing of the diffraction grate. To find the fringe spacing of this grate you can use d=1/N where N is the slits per metre. In this question this would be 1/4.5x10^5 = d = 2x10^-6 m. To find the angle provided by the second order maximum, rearrange the equation nλ=dsinθ to make sinθ the subject.This would then become nλ/d = sinθ.To find sinθ, sub in the values given to you in the question; i.e. n=2, λ=650nm and d=2x10^-6 m.This gives sinθ=0.65.Use your calculator to find sin-1(0.65) to find θ=40.5°.

SC

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

A geostationary satellite is orbiting Earth, a) What is meant by a geostationary orbit? b) Calculate the height at which the satellite orbits above the surface of the Earth. The radius of the Earth is 6400km and its mass is 6x10^24 kg.


Two trains are heading in opposite directions on the same track. Train X has a mass of 16000kg and a speed of 2.8m/s. Train Y has a mass of 12000kg and a speed of 3.1m/s. At what speed do the joined trains move off together immediately after the collison?


State what is meant by a Doppler shift and describe how it was used to study the movement of galaxies.


Why does light change direction when it hits a surface with a different refractive index?