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In the Double Slit Experiment, what type of wave are we talking about?

Physics Asked by Stack_Sucks on January 19, 2021

I was learning about the double slit experiment and simple explanation is that there is wave interference. Although I do not quite understand the wave bit. We know that light is a wave.
This Sine type wave

But in the image of the wave interference we see something like two ripples (in water) that interfere.
Wave interference

I couldn’t understand that how could a sine wave, pass through a slit and then suddenly become ripples.

P.S.
If we imagine a sine wave passing through a slit, we (or probably I) should expect a sine wave, because the front side of the sine wave is one-dimensional and that passing through a slit just a wee wide, shouldn’t change anything.

One Answer

As the wave passes through both slits the light diffracts into two coherent waves. Try to imagine the sine wave graphic (top picture) but from above. It's the same principle as a ripple; it's just crests and troughs. The lower graphic can be misleading as when you'd do this experiment with a laser there isn't nearly that much spread of the beam before it encounters the slits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction

enter image description here

Answered by The Dude on January 19, 2021

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