Single-Slit Diffraction
This applet shows the simplest case of diffraction, known as single slit diffraction. You can change the color of the light by dragging or clicking the spectrum selector. You may also change the width of the slit by dragging one of the sides.
Diffraction is a phenomenon which involves the bending of waves around
obstacles. It's generally guided by Huygen's Principle, which states: every point on a
wave front acts as a source of tiny wavelets that move forward with the same speed as the
wave; the wave front at a later instant is the surface that is tangent to the wavelets. If
you consider diffraction through a slit, then the properties of the system are dependent on the ratio
� Copyright 1997, Sergey Kiselev and Tanya Yanovsky-Kiselev
Last modified: June 20, 1997