Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Why are multiple colours observed over a thin film of oil floating on water? Explain with the help of a diagram.
Advertisements
Solution
Interference due to a thin film:
The brilliant colours of soap bubbles and thin films on the surface of water are due to the interference of light waves reflected from the upper and lower surfaces of the film. The two rays have a path difference which depends on the point on the film that is being viewed. This is shown in above figure.
The incident wave gets partially reflected from upper surface as shown by ray AE. The rest of the light gets refracted and travels along AB. At B it again gets partially reflected and travels along BC. At Cit refracts into air and travels along CF. The parallel rays AE and CF have a phase difference due to their different path lengths in different media. As can be seen from the figure, the phase difference depends on the angle of incidence θ1, i.e., the angle of incidence at the top surface which is the angle of viewing, and also on the wavelength of the light as the refractive index of the material of the thin film depends on it. The two waves propagating along AE and CF interfere producing maxima and minima for different colours at different angles of viewing. One sees different colours when the film is viewed at different angles.
As the reflection is from the denser boundary, there is an additional phase difference of π radians (or an additional path difference λ). This should be taken into account for mathematical analysis.
RELATED QUESTIONS
How does the angular separation between fringes in single-slit diffraction experiment change when the distance of separation between the slit screens is doubled?
When a drop of oil is spread on a water surface, it displays beautiful colours in daylight because of ______________ .
Answer in brief:
In Young's double-slit experiment what will we observe on the screen when white light is incident on the slits but one slit is covered with a red filter and the other with a violet filter? Give reasons for your answer.
What are the two methods for obtaining coherent sources in the laboratory?
Two coherent sources whose intensity ratio is 25:1 produce interference fringes. Calculate the ratio of amplitudes of light waves coming from them.
Why two light sources must be of equal intensity to obtain a well-defined interference pattern?
Explain constructive and destructive interference with the help of a diagram?
One of Young’s double slits is covered with a glass plate as shown in figure. The position of central maximum will,
Obtain the relation between phase difference and path difference.
What is intensity (or) amplitude division?
Explain Young’s double-slit experimental setup and obtain the equation for path difference.
In Young’s double slit experiment, the slits are 2 mm apart and are illuminated with a mixture of two wavelength λ0 = 750 nm and λ = 900 nm. What is the minimum distance from the common central bright fringe on a screen 2 m from the slits where a bright fringe from one interference pattern coincides with a bright fringe from the other?
The distance between the first and ninth bright fringes formed in a biprism experiment is ______.
(`lambda` = 6000 A, D = 1.0 m, d = 1.2 mm)
Two identical light waves having phase difference 'Φ' propagate in same direction. When they superpose, the intensity of the resultant wave is proportional to ______.
In Young's experiment for the interference of light, the separation between the silts is d and the distance of the screen from the slits is D. If D is increased by 0.6% and d is decreased by 0.2%, then for the light of a given wavelength, which one of the following is true?
"The fringe width ____________."
In a Young's double-slit experiment, the intensity at a point where the path difference is `lambda/3` (`lambda` being the wavelength of the light used) is I. If I0 denotes the maximum intensity, then `"I"/"I"_0` is equal to ______.
In a biprism experiment, D = 1 m, `lambda` = 6000 Å. When a convex lens is interposed between the biprism ru1d the eyepiece, then the distance between the images of the slits given by the Jens at two positions are 1.5 mm and 6.0 mm. The fringe width will be ______.
In a Young's experiment, two coherent sources are placed 0.60 mm apart and the fringes are observed one metre away. If it produces the second dark fringe at a distance of 1 mm from the central fringe, the wavelength of monochromatic light used would be ____________.
In Young's double slit experiment, the two slits act as coherent sources of equal amplitude A and wavelength `lambda`. In another experiment with the same set up the two slits are of equal amplitude A and wavelength `lambda`. but are incoherent. The ratio of the intensity of light at the mid-point of the screen in the first case to that in the second case is ____________.
In interference experiment, intensity at a point is `(1/4)^"th"` of the maximum intensity. The angular position of this point is at (sin30° = cos60° = 0.5, `lambda` = wavelength of light, d = slit width) ____________.
In the Young's double slit experiment, if the phase difference between the two waves interfering at a point is `phi`, the intensity at that point is proportional to ____________.
If two waves represented by `"y"_1 = 3 "sin" omega "t"` and `"y"_2 = 5 "sin" (omega "t" + pi/3)` interfere at a point, then the amplitude of the resulting wave will be about ____________.
In Young's double slit experiment, for wavelength λ1 the nth bright fringe is obtained at a point P on the screen. Keeping the same setting, source of light is replaced by wavelength λ2 and now (n + 1)th bright fringe is obtained at the same point P on the screen. The value of n is ______.
Young's double slit experiment is performed in water, instead of air, then fringe width ______.
Two coherent sources of intensities I1 and I2 produce an interference pattern on the screen. The maximum intensity in the interference pattern is ______
Interference fringes are produced on a screen by using two light sources of intensities I and 9I. The phase difference between the beams is `pi/2` at point P and π at point Q on the screen. The difference between the resultant intensities at point P and Q is ______.
Two coherent sources P and Q produce interference at point A on the screen where there is a dark band which is formed between 4th bright band and 5th bright band. Wavelength of light used is 6000 Å. The path difference between PA and QA is ______.
The path difference between two interference light waves meeting at a point on the screen is `(87/2)lambda`. The band obtained at that point is ______.
