Answer:
approximately 5.76 × 10^−7 meters, or 576 nanometers
Step-by-step explanation:
The location of bright fringes in a double slit experiment is given by the formula:
d * sin(θ) = m * λ
where:
d is the slit separation,
θ is the angle at which the fringe occurs,
m is the order of the fringe (m = 0 for the central maximum, m = 1 for the first bright fringe, m = 2 for the second bright fringe, and so on), and
λ is the wavelength of the light.
We're looking for the wavelength of the light, and we're given that d = 2.02 × 10^−6 m, θ = 16.5°, and m = 1 (since we're looking at the first bright fringe).
Rearranging the formula to solve for λ gives us:
λ = d * sin(θ) / m
We need to make sure that we're working in radians, as that's what the trigonometric functions in most programming and calculation tools expect. There are π radians in 180 degrees, so to convert from degrees to radians, we multiply by π/180. This gives us θ = 16.5° * π/180 = 0.2873 radians.
Substituting the given values into the formula gives us:
λ = (2.02 × 10^−6 m) * sin(0.2873) / 1
λ ≈ 5.76 * 10^-7 m
So the wavelength of the light is approximately 5.76 × 10^−7 meters, or 576 nanometers (since 1 m = 10^9 nm).