In this lab, you can explore what happens to a wave traveling through one medium. If the wave encounters a fixed end, the wave is reflected upside down. If the wave encounters a free end, the wave is reflected upright.
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In this lab, you can explore what light does when it encounters a diffraction grating. Use at least one of the checkboxes to turn on a beam of light.
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In this lab, you can explore the diffraction of waves through a single slit and double-slit interference pattern.
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In this lab, you can explore the diffraction of waves by a single slit. The width of the opening is controlled by the slider. Initially, the waves are shown in black and white (grayscale), with both the peaks and troughs being white. Black indicates a zero amplitude.
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This lab demonstrates the interference of waves from two identical sources that are separated by a variable distance. The wave crests are shown in red and the troughs in blue, with black indicating a local wave amplitude of zero.
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This lab shows interference of waves from two identical sources that are separated by a variable distance. The wave crests are shown in red and the troughs in blue, with black indicating a local wave amplitude of zero.
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In this lab, you can explore how a rainbow is formed. Refraction plays an important role - when white light from the Sun enters a droplet, it refracts into the droplet, experiences total internal reflection at the back of the droplet, and then refracts back out into the air.
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This lab demonstrates how a prism works. White light shines in from the left. You may be surprised to see that it goes straight into the prism, without splitting up inside the prism. Why is this? This is something of a special case.
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In this lab, you can explore the phenomenon of total internal reflection (such as an in a optic fibre). The light source is the purple dot in medium 2. The light is incident on the interface between the two media at the position of the green dot, which is fixed.
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In this lab, you can explore refraction through 3 media. The light is emitted by the red dot, which is in the air. The light enters medium 2, and then continues on to medium 3. Before adjusting either slider, make two predictions.
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