diffraction

Noun

Meaning

The deflection and decomposition of light in passing by the edges of opaque bodies or through narrow slits, causing the appearance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Phrases with the word

Examples

I first met the subject of X-ray diffraction of crystals in the pages of the book W. H. Bragg wrote for school children in 1925, 'Concerning the Nature of Things.' Dorothy Hodgkin

Light propagates and spreads not only directly, through refraction, and reflection, but also by a fourth mode, diffraction. Francesco Maria Grimaldi

For X-rays, the phenomenon of diffraction by crystals was a natural consequence of the idea that X-rays are waves analogous to light and differ from it only by having a smaller wavelength. Louis de Broglie

If diffraction or interference phenomena were to be sought it was therefore necessary, in accordance with the basic principles of wave theory, to select for the test arrangement far smaller decisive dimensions than those employed in corresponding tests with visible light. Max von Laue

The intimate relation between interference and diffraction has its origin in the interference equation itself. F. J. Duarte

The fundamental importance of the subject of molecular diffraction came first to be recognized through the theoretical work of the late Lord Rayleigh on the blue light of the sky, which he showed to be the result of the scattering of sunlight by the gases of the atmosphere. C. V. Raman

Close letter words and terms