Adouble-slit experiment yields an interference pattern due to the path length difference from light traveling through one slit versus the other. why does a single slit show a diffraction pattern?

a. the single slit must have something in the middle of it, causing it to act like a double slit.
b. there is a path length difference from waves originating at different parts of the slit.
c. the wavelength of the light is shorter than the slit.
d. the light passing through the slit interferes with light that does not pass through.

Therefore the correct statement is B.

Explanation:

In the interference and diffraction phenomena, the natural wave of electromagnetic radiation must be taken into account, the wave front that advances towards the slit can be considered as when it reaches it behaves like a series of wave emitters, each slightly out of phase from the previous one, following the Huygens principle that states that each point is compiled as a source of secondary waves.

The sum of all these waves results in the diffraction curve of the slit that has the shape

      I = Io sin² θ /θ²

Where the angle is a function of the wavelength and the width of the slit.

From the above, the interference phenomenon can be treated as the sum of two diffraction phenomena displaced a distance equal to the separation of the slits (d)

Therefore the correct statement is B

from 1609, galileo galilei used the recently invented telescope to observe the sun, moon and planets. he saw the mountains and craters of the moon, and for the first time revealed the planets to be worlds in their own right. galileo also provided strong observational evidence that planets orbited the sun.

his discoveries about the moon, jupiter's moons, venus, and sunspots supported the idea that the sun - not the earth - was the center of the universe, as was commonly believed at the time.galileo turned his gaze toward venus, the brightest celestial object in the sky - other than the sun and the moon.