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 7 cm across, and you estimate that the distance from the window shade to the wall is about 4 m .

Knowing that the average wavelength of sunlight is about 500 nm, estimate the diameter of the pinhole.

Express your answer to one significant figure and include the appropriate units.

PLEASE ANSWER CORRECTLY!!!

Explanation / Answer

we know the formula for diameter of central maximum,

D = 2*lamda*R/d (here lamda is wavelength,R is didtsnce from pin hole to wall and d is diameter of pin hole)

==> d = 2*lamda*R/D

= 2*500*10^-9*4/(7*10^-2)

= 5.71*10^-5 m

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