Ryan Newman Diffraction of Light Diffraction is the bending of light around obstacles.

To put this into an example, you could think about light bending around a door and into a classroom. The light does not just stay in the hallway. The light bends around the door and lights up part of the room. Diffraction can also occur when light waves pass through a slit. When the light waves pass through a slit, the waves diffract and spread out. An example of light diffracting through light and spreading out is how a projector bulb fills an entire SMART Board. The light that comes through the bulb is much smaller than the SMART Board. But when the light gets diffracted through the bulb it spreads out and fills the entire SMART Board. Double-slit diffraction is when light waves pass through two openings, diffract, and interfere with each other. The places where the light waves interfere with each other are called fringes. The dark fringes are areas where complete destructive interference occurs. The bright fringes are where constructive interference occurs. Diffraction grating is another concept of diffraction. This occurs when an optical component diffracts light waves into several beams traveling in opposite directions. Everybody has seen this take place before on the back of a CD. When you shine the back of a CD in the light, you can see the beams split and travel in opposite directions of each other. Diffraction is used in telescopes and microscopes to resolve (or clear up) images. Diffraction separates the blurred image into different individual images. Without diffraction, using telescopes and microscopes may not be possible. Diffraction is a very important concept. If there was no diffraction, we wouldnt be able to use telescopes and microscopes. We would have no idea that there were other planets, or that

the entire human body is made up of cells. Some of the greatest discoveries known to man would not be possible without diffraction.

Davidson, M. W. (n.d.). Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Light and Color Diffraction of

Bibliography

Light. Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Light and Color - Diffraction of Light. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/diffractionintro.html

Abramowitz, M., & Davidson, M. W. (n.d.). Diffraction of Light. Olympus Microscopy Resource Center. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/lightandcolor/diffraction.html

Hewitt, P. (2009). Conceptual Physics. New Jersey: Addison-Wesley and Pearson.

Classic Two-Slit Experiment. (n.d.). Classic Two-Slit Experiment. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/schroedinger/two-slit2.html

Diffraction Grating. (n.d.). Diffraction Grating. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from http://www.physics.smu.edu/~scalise/emmanual/diffraction/lab.html