CD Diffraction

Statement of Purpose
Observe the diffraction of parallel light rays through multiple slits.

Procedure

Part 1
Set up the following

With given distance between slits in the diffraction grating, the target variable is the wavelength of the light. The distance from the Huygen sources to the screen is separated by one meter stick and the distance between maximas is measured by another meter stick.

The following calculation determined that the wavelength of the laser is (660 +- 27.6) nm which affirms the wavelength specified on the laser.

Part 2

With the given wavelength, this setup attempts to find the separation of the gratings on a compact disk (CD). The following measurements were made: the distance from the CD to the screen and the average distance between maximas.

Conclusion
The actual separation of the gratings in the CD is 1600 micrometers which compared to our experimental data makes an error of about 40.75%. This error comes from the angle at which we adjusted for the CD. A more accurate experiment would have the CD perfectly parallel to the screen.