Calculate the minimum thickness needed for an antireflective coating (n = 1.42) applied to a glass lens in order to eliminate (a) blue (450 nm), or (b) red (720 nm) reflections for light at normal incidence.

At what angle will 480-nm light produce a second-order maximum when falling on a grating whose slits are 1.25 x 10^-3 cm apart?

Unpolarized light falls on two polarizer sheets whose axes are at right angles. (a) What fraction of the incident light intensity is transmitted? (b) What fraction is transmitted if a third polarizer is placed between the first two so that its axis makes a 58° angle with the axis of the first polarizer? (c) What if the third polarizer is in front of the other two?

Show that the second- and third-order spectra of white light produced by a diffraction grating always overlap. What wavelengths overlap?

When driving at night, your eyes’ pupils have dilated to a 7.5-mm diameter. If your vision is diffraction limited, what would be the greatest distance at which you could resolve the two headlights of an oncoming car, which are spaced 1.5 m apart? Assume a wavelength of 550 nm for the light.

How far apart are the dark fringes in Example 34–6 if the glass plates are each 26.3 cm long?

A micrometer is connected to the movable mirror of an interferometer. When the micrometer is tightened down on a thin metal foil, the net number of bright fringes that move, compared to the empty micrometer, is 272. What is the thickness of the foil? The wavelength of light used is 611 nm.

How far must the mirror M₁ in a Michelson interferometer be moved if 730 fringes of 589-nm light are to pass by a reference line?

What is the minimum (non-zero) thickness for the air layer between two flat glass surfaces if the glass is to appear dark when 650-nm light is incident normally? What if the glass is to appear bright?