Table of Contents
Why does light spread out?
For instance, in the atmosphere, light is actually bent around atmospheric particles — like the tiny water droplets found in clouds. And it’s not just the edge of the wave, but the entire wave that bends around the corner. This means if we pass a beam of light through a hole, it spreads out as it travels.
Why does light spread out through a slit?
Diffraction occurs when light hits an obstacle, and then bends around the edge of the object. The light bends as shown in Figure 1. Light is also a wave, so if it goes through a narrow slit or small hole, it changes from a plane wave to a spherical one. This transformation is the same as with waves of water.
Can light be seen in a vacuum?
In a perfect vacuum, not only can you not see light that isn’t traveling toward you, you can’t even see light that is traveling toward you until it actually reaches your eyes. Light must reach your eyes/detectors one way or another – no matter vacuum or not.
What is it called when light spreads?
This phenomenon is called diffraction.
What happens when light is not spread out?
Therefore, if you look at photons as waves, spatial gaps never form in light as it travels through free space, no matter how dim it gets. The light from a distance star indeed spreads out and weakens as it travels, but this just reduces the wave strength and does not introduce gaps.
What happens to light when it spreads out?
Light spreads out in just the same way as the butter from the gun. In other words, as light travels away from a point source its intensity is reduced simply because it is more spread out (just like the reduced thickness of butter).
What happens when the light is more spread out?
Spreading out a wave over a larger area just causes the wave strength to weaken, but does not cause gaps to form. Therefore, if you look at photons as waves, spatial gaps never form in light as it travels through free space, no matter how dim it gets.
How does interference happen?
What is Interference? Wave interference is the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along the same medium. The interference of waves causes the medium to take on a shape that results from the net effect of the two individual waves upon the particles of the medium.