Physics Topic: Superposition

  1. Explain the meaning of the term diffraction.

  2. Show an understanding of experiments which demonstrate diffraction including the diffraction of water waves in a ripple tank with both a wide gap and a narrow gap.

  3. Show an understanding of the terms interference and coherence.

  4. Show an understanding of experiments which demonstrate two-source interference using water, light and microwaves.

  5. Understand the conditions required if two-source interference fringes are to be observed.

  6. Recall and solve problems using the equation x=D(wavelength)/a for double-slit interference using light.

  7. (For H2 Syllabus only) Recall and solve problems by using the formula dsin(theta)=n x wavelength  and describe the use of a diffraction grating to determine the wavelength of light. [The structure and use of the spectrometer is not included.]