💠 Interference of Waves
📖 The Physics
What happens where two waves meet? They simply add up, crest to crest and trough to trough — this is the principle of superposition.
Along some directions the two waves always arrive in step and reinforce — constructive interference (bright). Along others they arrive exactly out of step and cancel — destructive interference (dark).
Constructive: path difference = m·λ (m = 0, 1, 2 …)
Destructive: path difference = (m + ½)·λ
Widen the source separation and the bands get closer together; increase the wavelength and they spread apart — the same rule behind the double-slit experiment in 2nd paper.
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