interference pattern
Superposition creates stripes
An interference pattern is the distinctive arrangement of light and dark bands—or peaks and troughs—that forms when two or more waves overlap and combine.
Where wave crests align, they amplify each other; where crest meets trough, they cancel out.
The effect appears dramatically when light passes through narrow slits, producing striped patterns that proved light behaves as a wave.
Interference patterns occur with any wave phenomenon: sound, water, radio signals.
- double slitTwo narrow parallel openings
- wavefrontsLoci of equal phase
- wave crestSwell's highest point
- diffractionWaves spreading past obstacles
- waveOscillating motion through medium
Airy disk · light · superposition · light waves · holography · phase shift · laser beam · standing wave · coherent light · quantum superposition · constructive · oil slick · soap bubble · electron diffraction · beam splitter · Fresnel diffraction · polarization · spectral lines
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