next up previous contents
Next: Relation between intensity and Up: Pattern from a single Previous: Pattern from a single

Meaning of infinitesimal

In physics (or politics, for that matter), one should always be suspicious when told that something is ``small'' or ``large'' and ask, ``Small or large compared to what!?!'' In this case, we are speaking relative to the wavelength tex2html_wrap_inline968 of the waves going through the slit. As long as the slit is very narrow compared to tex2html_wrap_inline968 , then our results below will be valid.



Tomas Arias
Thu Sep 13 15:26:14 EDT 2001