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greswd
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If I have 2 identical laser pointers, is it possible for me to point them both at the same spot on a wall and see no light at all due to complete destructive interference?
Unless they are perfectly overlapping, you cannot get a perfect cancellation everywhere. I don't see how you could place the screen such that you get only destructive interference.greswd said:Actual lasers, but of the highest quality allowed by the laws of physics. Even if both are at an angle, we still can align the wave vectors right?
greswd said:If I have 2 identical laser pointers, is it possible for me to point them both at the same spot on a wall and see no light at all due to complete destructive interference?
Energy is conserved so, if there is destructive interference in one spot, there will be constructive interference somewhere else. The energy just has to go somewhere.greswd said:same spot on a wall and see no light at all due to complete destructive
Actually, it's worse than that. The only way to get your cancellation 'everywhere' is for the phase centres of the two sources in exactly the same place and for the distribution patterns to be identical. That, I think, would imply that even the emitting atoms would need to be in the same places.DrClaude said:Unless they are perfectly overlapping, you cannot get a perfect cancellation everywhere.
Destructive interference of 2 lasers occurs when two laser beams of the same wavelength and amplitude meet and cancel each other out, resulting in a decrease or complete elimination of the light intensity in that area.
Destructive interference occurs when the peaks of one laser beam align with the troughs of another laser beam, causing the waves to cancel each other out.
The degree of destructive interference is affected by the relative phase difference between the two laser beams, the angle at which they intersect, and the wavelength and amplitude of the lasers.
Destructive interference of 2 lasers can be used in various applications such as optical data storage, holographic imaging, and interferometric measurements.
Destructive interference results in a decrease or elimination of light intensity, whereas constructive interference results in an increase in light intensity. Additionally, destructive interference occurs when the waves are out of phase, while constructive interference occurs when the waves are in phase.