Slit Distance - Young's Double Slit Experiment

[iambadatscience]

I understand Young's Double Slit Experiment, which basically consists of pointing a laser through two slits and seeing the maxima with different brightness, caused by constructive and destructive interference respectively. Through the experiment, I know that increasing the distance between the two slits will cause the distance between the maxima to decrease, which can be seen through the formula. However, I'm not too sure how to explain this in words, can anyone please explain to me why this occurs? Thanks :D

 

[sophiecentaur]

Hmm. You did a fair job already. Any more detail and it would call for some Maths, I think. If people can't cope with the Maths of interference phenomena then they are unlikely to get any nearer than your basic verbal explanation. Let'f face it, the concept of vectors, which are the best (only?) explanation of the effect, is highly Mathematical, for a start.
I don't think you should feel guilty about not being able to 'explain' interference. You could, of course, use the opportunity to pooh pooh the corpuscular theory of light and set them straight in a major way.