Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Fringe of Optics - a new PhET activity

The geometry and trigonometry of interference patterns is non-intutive to students. I think it's non-intutive to most of us. Doing real lab work in this area is recommended. But the equipment and time requirements can be daunting.

This sim can be used in conjunction with a lab activity, or in place of one (in a pinch). Its intent is to develop the basic relationship governing the geometry of a two-slit interference pattern, and then to work with that relationship.

The activity uses the PhET sim, Wave Interference.

The Fringe of Optics (PhET page).
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2 comments:

  1. Jonathan11:21 AM

    Dean,

    I clicked on the PhET link to check out the activity, but there was no file to be found. Did you forget to attach the file or am I missing something?

    Thanks for the great activities!

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  2. Dean Baird1:02 PM

    Thanks Jonathan, I'm not sure how that happened (PhEt won't let you submit an activity without including a file). Somehow the upload didn't take.

    No worries, I edited the activity to include the PDF. It seems to be functioning now.

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