Diffraction and Conservation

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
In difraction grating, the incident light undergoes constructive and destructive interference producing distinct colours of the visual band (rain bow colors). What happens to the energy of the incident photon (of the incident light) during constructive and destructive interference?
- opolot Daniel (age 23)
Kampala, Uganda
A:
So called ’white light’ is an incoherent mixture of photons of all colors (wavelengths).
All a diffraction grating does is to separate them out into different angular bins.  For
each photon, energy is conserved. 
LeeH




(published on 10/22/2007)