Lesson Plan: Resolution of Wave Sources Physics • 9th Grade
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to define the resolutions of objects and relate their separations to gap widths that waves from the objects pass through.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recall that the Rayleigh criterion for the spatial resolution of sources of waves defines just resolvable sources as those for which the waves from both sources are diffracted by passing through the same aperture and that the position of the central maximum of the intensity pattern of the waves of one of the sources is at the position of the first order minimum of the intensity pattern of the waves of the other source,
- apply the equation , where is the angular distance between two just resolvable sources of waves of wavelength that are separated by a distance and whose waves both pass through an aperture that is effectively one dimensional,
- apply the equation , where is the angular distance between two just resolvable sources of waves of wavelength that are separated by a distance and whose waves both pass through an aperture that is circular.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- single-slit diffraction patterns.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- intensity calculations.