One day, after pulling down your window shade, you notice that sunlight is passi

Question

One day, after pulling down your window shade, you notice that sunlight is passing through a pinhole in the shade and making a small patch of light on the far wall. Having recently studied optics in your physics class, you're not too surprised to see that the patch of light seems to be a circular diffraction pattern. It appears that the central maximum is about 2 cm across, and you estimate the distance from the window shade to the wall is about 3 m. Know that the average wavelength of sunlight is about 500 nm, estimate the diameter of the pinhole.

I tried to use the formula w= (2.44 lambda L )/ D and also tried s/R = (1.22 lambda) / D but still got the wrong answer. I converted them into m already.

Explanation / Answer

apply Y = 1.22LR/d

here Y = 2/2 = 1cm

so d = 1.22* 500nm * 3/(1cm)

d = 0.183 mm

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