Figure 4 shows the interference patterns that arise when light passes through narrow slits closely spaced about a wavelength apart. The interference that is seen in water waves is also seen with light, which indicates that light behaves like a wave. (credit: “Dmitris1″/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0) Light Behaves as a Wave Waves pass through a breakwater in Ashkelon, Israel and form a semicircular pattern. Consider the water waves in Figure 3 that show how water waves diffract and form large semicircles after passing through a breakwater. (b) Pure destructive interference occurs when identical waves are exactly out of phase, or shifted by half a wavelength.ĭiffraction of waves occurs when a wave encounters an obstacle-the wave appears to bend around a small obstacle or spread out in semicircles after an opening. (a) Pure constructive interference is obtained when identical waves are in phase. The amplitudes of the interfering waves add together and produce a resultant wave, as shown below. Destructive interference occurs in regions where the peak of one wave coincides with the trough of another wave ( Figure 2b). Constructive interference occurs in regions where the peaks or troughs for the two waves coincide ( Figure 2a). There are two types of wave interference. (credit: modification of work by Sukanto Debnath) The waves are caused by the disturbance of water by the rocks. An interference pattern on the water surface is formed by interacting waves. Interacting waves on the surface of water can produce interference patterns similar to those shown below ( Figure 1). When two or more waves come into contact, they interfere with each other. If you were to drop multiple stones into a still pond, you would see these same waves ripple outward, but when the waves meet, the pattern would change. If you were to drop a stone into a still pond, you would see waves ripple outward from the center of a circle. | Key Concepts and Summary | Glossary | Wave Interference and Diffraction | Wave Interference and Diffraction | Light Behaves as a Wave | Illustrate how the diffraction of electrons reveals the wave properties of matter.
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