Exam-hall rules, last bench
This is the boss. No calculator: , the angles are pinned at 30° so exactly, and every value on the bench is chosen to fit in your head. One laser travels the whole length of the course: the wave equation gives its frequency, the index gives its speed and wavelength inside a block, Snell's law bends it at the face, and Young's slits paint what is left on the wall.
Every answer feeds the next. Write each line down as you go — one early slip rolls all the way to the wall, and the finish will trace exactly where the cascade started. Two things to hold onto: the frequency never changes, whatever the light passes through; and a block with parallel faces hands the beam back to the air with its original wavelength and its original direction, merely shifted sideways.
Everything from the chapter rides in it. 5★ under par here is the chapter crown. Clock in.
- = Wave speed (speed)
- = Frequency (frequency)
- = Wavelength (length)
- = Index of refraction
- = Speed of light in the medium (speed)
- = Index of refraction (medium 1)
- = Angle of incidence (angle)
- = Index of refraction (medium 2)
- = Angle of refraction (angle)
- = Fringe spacing
- = Wavelength
- = Slit-to-screen distance
- = Slit separation
each variable a length