Diffraction at Night
Entry posted by ericaplukas
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Ever since I was young I hated to sleep with my door open because i wanted there to be complete darkness. After the class lesson on diffraction, i now know that i am not actually sleeping in the complete dark. Diffraction is described as the bending of waves around small objects and the speading out of waves through small openings. Because of diffraction, I can infer that I am not sleeping in the dark, but the light.
In my house, there is a hallway right outside my bedroom and my parents normally forget to turn off the hallway light before they fall asleep. However, when i go to bed, i just shut my door and turn off the light in my room. Since my door has a slight slit under it, this means that the light waves from the hallway can come into my room and eventually make the dark, a not so dark room and light up the room. Many people are led to believe that their eyes just adjust the the dark but in scientific reasonings, the reason why you are able to see better is because of diffraction. The light waves are able to go through the small opening and bend into my room causing it to be lit up.
Now, before I go to bed, I should cover up the slit under my door to ensure that i have complete darkness to sleep in. Because of the bending of light waves, the completely dark room that i have becomes lit up. This happens in my other circumstances because difffraction is everywhere. Say you are playing a sport and the whistle is blown, but there are many things blocking you from the person blowing the whistle, you still can hear the whistle. This is because the sound waves are moving past the objects blocking you from the whistle and this is diffraction. Overall, diffraction can be found almost anywhere at anytime!
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