Question

phenomenon of bending of light at the obstacle is called as_____?
and explain the intensity distribution involved in the pattern formed due to this phenomenon
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Answer 1

Phenomenon of bending of light at the obstacle is called as diffraction.

Answer 2

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Diffraction

• Diffraction of Light: light bending around an object. Diffraction is the slight bending of light as it passes around the edge of an object. The amount of bending depends on the relative size of the wavelength of light to the size of the opening.

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• Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when a wave encounters an obstacle or opening. It is defined as the bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the propagating wave. Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.

• In the modern quantum mechanical understanding of light propagation through a slit (or slits) every photon has what is known as a wavefunction which describes its path from the emitter through the slit to the screen. The wavefunction — the path the photon will take — is determined by the physical surroundings such as slit geometry, screen distance and initial conditions when the photon is created. In important experiments (A low-intensity double-slit experiment was first performed by G. I. Taylor in 1909, see double-slit experiment) the existence of the photon's wavefunction was demonstrated. In the quantum approach the diffraction pattern is created by the distribution of paths, the observation of light and dark bands is the presence or absence of photons in these areas (no interference!). The quantum approach has some striking similarities to the Huygens-Fresnel principle; in that principle the light becomes a series of individually distributed light sources across the slit which is similar to the limited number of paths (or wave functions) available for the photons to travel through the slit

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