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A plate of refractive index 1.5 is placed in the path of one of the two rays in Young's experiment. If the central fringe remains bright, the minimum thickness of the plate is ________.

Asked in GSEB Board July 2017 · Slabs, media and modified set-ups

Answer: (1) 2λ

Step-by-step solution

Given: a plate of refractive index μ = 1.5 in the path of one of the two interfering rays, with the central fringe still bright.

Idea: putting the plate in replaces a thickness t of air by the same thickness of glass, which lengthens that ray's optical path by (μ - 1)t.

The centre stays bright only if this extra path is a whole number of wavelengths, so (μ - 1)t = mλ with m = 1, 2, 3, …

The smallest thickness is the one with m = 1: t = λ/(μ-1).

t = λ/(1.5 - 1) = λ/(0.5).

The minimum thickness of the plate is 2λ.

Why the other options are wrong

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