Why Diffraction and not Refraction Spectroscope?
Name: Jeff Status: educator Grade: 9-12 Location: CA Country: USA Question: Why is it called a diffraction grating spectroscope? The diagrams of how it works seem to show light coming in the slit, then refracting (NOT diffracting) and reflecting through the bumpy non-air medium material, then projecting the separated colors against the wall. I thought diffraction was when a wave goes around a edge/corner but all the while staying in the same medium. ————————————— Jeff, If you want to use the correct term for the pattern produced by the grating, the word is interference. Refraction is due to a “change of speed” of the light as it passes through a material. A diffraction grating has many parallel slits of very tiny width. Light through adjacent slits experiences interference just as occurs for light passing through two parallel slits. Light diffracts as it leaves each slit. The diffracted light from each slit crosses paths with diffracted light from adjacent sli
