a) You are looking into the headlights of a distant vehicle on an autoroute in F

Question

a) You are looking into the headlights of a distant vehicle on an autoroute in France.  The driver has shown his resistance to the Europeanization of Europe by resolutely continuing to use yellow headlights (wavelength 550. nm).  What is the theoretical limit of angular resolution of your eyes for these headlights when your iris has a diameter of 6.00 mm?  (Express your answer in mrad.)
b) If the headlights of the car are separated by 1.20 m, with this resolution at what distance would you be just be able to tell that the vehicle had, in fact, two headlights?  (Express your answer in km.)

Explanation / Answer

a) sin theta = 1.22 lambda/D

theta = arcsin( 1.22*550.0E-9/6.0E-3)=0.112 mrad

b) y/L = tan theta

L = y/tan(theta) = 1.2/sin(0.112E-3)=10.7 km

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