Question

what is the difference between path difference and phase difference?
I want clear explanation and not from internet...

Answer 1

Phase difference:-if two waves that have same frequencies but different phase are known to have a phase difference and are said to be out of phase.

Path difference:-let us suppose the two wave crest are traveling a different distances from their sources and meet at a point in such a way that crest meets crest.Then the difference between distance traveled is known as path difference.

path difference is the difference in pathtraversed by the two waves , measured in terms of wavelength of the associated wave. It has a direct relation withphase difference. Phase difference decides the nature of interference pattern but phase difference is found out by path difference.