The Newton two-knife experiment: Intricacies of wedge diffraction

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 64, Issue 6, 1996, Pages 773-787

  Silverman, M P ^a   Strange, Wayne ^a  

^a TRINITY COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030554196     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.18278     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. So strong was Newton's influence on natural philosophy, even long after his death, that Young's memoir elicited very little interest within the scientific community at the time of publication. Not until the conclusive researches of Augustin Fresnel in the 1820s did physicists accept the wave theory of light.
2. R. P. Feynman, R. B. Leighton, and M. Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1965), Vol. III, Ch. 1.
3. Sir Isaac Newton, Opticks or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, & Colours of Light (Dover, New York, 1952), based on the Fourth Edition, London, 1730; citations are drawn from p. 317-318 and 325-335.
4. See, for example, Ref. 3, Born and Wolf, or A. Sommerfeld, Optics (Academic, New York, 1964), pp. 245-247.
5. See, for example, J. B. Marion and M. A. Heald, Classical Electromagnetic Radiation, 2nd ed. (Academic, New York, 1980), pp. 393-403.
6. J. C. H. Spence, W. Qian, and M. P. Silverman, "Electron source brightness and degeneracy from Fresnel fringes in field emission point projection microscopy," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 12, 542-547 (1989).
7. We posed the question to a diverse group of about 25 science students and faculty of how Newton might have made such a measurement without precision instruments; no one arrived at a satisfactory solution.
8. M. P. Silverman, W. Strange, and J. C. H. Spence, "The Brightest Beam in Science: New Directions in Electron Microscopy and Interferometry," Am. J. Phys. 63 (9), 800-813.
9. For discussion of the use of coupled charge devices (CCD) in the study of Fraunhofer diffraction, see C. de Izarra and O. Vallee, "On the use of linear CCD image sensors in optics experiments," Am J. Phys. 62, 357-361 (1994).
10. T. W. Mayes and B. F. Melton, "Fraunhofer diffraction of visible light by a narrow slit," Am. J. Phys. 62, 397-403 (1994).
11. C. A. Bennett, "A computer-assisted experiment in single-slit diffraction and spatial filtering," Am. J. Phys. 58, 75-78 (1989).
12. J. T. Wesley and A. F. Behof, "Optical diffraction pattern measurements using a self-scanning photodiode array interfaced to a microcomputer," Am. J. Phys. 55, 75-78 (1990).
13. E. Hecht, Optics, 2nd ed. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1987), p. 463.
14. M. P. Silverman, And Yet It Moves: Strange Systems and Subtle Questions in Physics (Cambridge U.P., New York, 1993), pp. 99-101.
15. A. Eisenkraft, "A closer look at diffraction: Experiments in spatial filtering," Phys. Teacher 15, 199-211 (1977).
16. D. Gabor, "Microscopy by reconstructed wavefronts," Proc. R. Soc. A 197, 454-487 (1949).
17. See, for example, D. Halliday and R. Resnick, Physics (Wiley, New York, 1978), pp. 1025-1027.
18. M. P. Silverman, More Than One Mystery: Explorations in Quantum Interference (Springer-Verlag New York, 1995), pp. 4-6.
19. J. Z. Buchwald, The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light (Chicago U.P., Chicago, 1989), pp. 111-154.
20. A. Sommerfeld, "Theorie der Beugung," in P. Frank and R. v. Mises, Die Differentialgleichungen und Integralgeleichungen der Mechanik und Physik (Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1935), Part 2, 2nd ed., pp. 843-853; Optics (Academic, New York, 1964), pp. 273-289.
21. A. Sommerfeld, "Theorie der Beugung," in P. Frank and R. v. Mises, Die Differentialgleichungen und Integralgeleichungen der Mechanik und Physik (Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1935), Part 2, 2nd ed., pp. 843-853; Optics (Academic, New York, 1964), pp. 273-289.
22. See, for example, M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 4th ed. (Pergamon, Oxford, 1970), pp. 449-453.
23. 1=nλ, which defines a hyperbolic locus of points P in the yz plane, locates a specific fringe minimum. To a good approximation the points of maximum light intensity also trace out a hyperbolic trajectory as z is varied. If, however, light were a stream of particles acted upon by short-range forces, then one would expect the particles, after deviation by the knife edges, to propagate through space in a straight line. To account for a hyperbolic trajectory would require some kind of retarding medium (aether) in lieu of empty space.