Diffraction grating of laser light

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves a diffraction grating with laser light of wavelength 630 nm and 300 lines per mm. The original poster seeks to determine how many spots of red light will be visible on a curved piece of paper positioned 180 degrees beyond the grating.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster calculates the spacing between lines and attempts to find the order of diffraction using the formula nλ = d*sin(θ). They express confusion regarding their result compared to a reference answer.

Discussion Status

Participants are engaging in clarifying the calculations and assumptions made by the original poster. Some have pointed out the importance of including the central maximum in the count of spots and have questioned the rounding of the order of diffraction.

Contextual Notes

There is a mention of the original poster's calculator being set to radians, which may have affected their calculations. Additionally, there is a note about the units used for the spacing between lines being potentially misinterpreted.

Johnahh
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Homework Statement


a narrow beam of laser light (i.e coherent monochromatic light) wavelength 630nm is incident on a grating having 300 lines per mm. a piece of paper is curved 180 degrees beyond the grating. calculate how many spots of red light should be seen

Homework Equations


n\lambda=d*sin\theta
d = spacing between lines
n = order of angle

The Attempt at a Solution


so there's 300 lines per mm and i want to find out d therefore i did \frac{1}{300000} and got 3.33x10^-6 lines per m
so now i can use n*630x10^-9=3.33x10^-6*sin(90)
this makes
n=\frac{3.33x10^-6*sin(90)}{630x10^-9}

this gives me 4.72 which I can round up to 5 and multiply by 2 to get the order for 180 degrees.
so I get an answer of 10 and the books answer is 11.
what am I doing wrong

P.S first time using latex...
 
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Johnahh said:
and got 3.33x10^-6 lines per m
This should be meter per line I think.

You forgot the central spot at an angle of zero.
 
check your calculation, I got n to be just greater than 5. As mfb says, you forgot the central max (n = 0)
If n was 4.72 then you would only see 9 spots (including the central max)
You cannot 'round up' the value of n !
 
you are correct that should have been meter per line. I knew I must have been forgetting something.
Thankyou
 
technician, after seeing your reply I have noticed my calculator is still in radians from my math revision. now i get 5.29 down to 5. Thanks lol
 

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