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  4. What happens to the fringe pattern when the Youngs double slit experiment is performed in water instead of air?

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Q. What happens to the fringe pattern when the Youngs double slit experiment is performed in water instead of air?

Punjab PMETPunjab PMET 2006Wave Optics

Solution:

In Young's double slit experiment, let screen is placed at a distance $D, d$ is the distance between coherent sources.
image
The fringe width is given by
$W=\frac{D \lambda}{d}$
where, $\lambda$ is wavelength of light used.
When dipped in water, wavelength is $\lambda_{\omega}=\frac{\lambda_{a}}{\mu}$
hence, it decreases.
Therefore, fringe width decreases and hence, fringe pattern shrinks.