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sheri1987
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Optics--Diffraction of Thin Hair
A human hair is illuminated with a laser and it produces a diffraction pattern on a screen 1.09 m away. If the distance from the center to the first minimum is 4.8 mm and the wavelength of the laser is 748 nm, what is the thickness of the hair? Express your answer in mm.
wavelength = (x/m)*(w/l)
x= distance from central maximum to position of the minimum m
l= distance
w= width
m = minimum
I converted 748nm to mm and 1.9m to mm and plugged in the values into the above equation and got .296 mm approximately. I set m = 1, because I thought it was asking for the 1st minimum. And x = 4.8...but the answer I got is wrong. Any help?
Homework Statement
A human hair is illuminated with a laser and it produces a diffraction pattern on a screen 1.09 m away. If the distance from the center to the first minimum is 4.8 mm and the wavelength of the laser is 748 nm, what is the thickness of the hair? Express your answer in mm.
Homework Equations
wavelength = (x/m)*(w/l)
x= distance from central maximum to position of the minimum m
l= distance
w= width
m = minimum
The Attempt at a Solution
I converted 748nm to mm and 1.9m to mm and plugged in the values into the above equation and got .296 mm approximately. I set m = 1, because I thought it was asking for the 1st minimum. And x = 4.8...but the answer I got is wrong. Any help?