Talk:Diffraction from slits

Old discussions
Strictly speaking, isn't the "array of narrow slits" problem formulated in Section 1.3 really an 'interference' effect rather than 'diffraction'? The slits are being treated as point sources, and hence there is no massive obstacle that can cause any diffraction. I'm not sure if this distinction between the two phenomena is universally used, so I haven't edited. What do we think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hayimd (talk • contribs) 22:09, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Would someone please move the approximation out of the multislit section to the appropriate section.

Can we start with double slit?

What is this integration over y stuff needed for?

The single slit and multiple slit formulas differ only in sum vs integral, leading to geometric sum vs sinc. Why is there sooo much repeating? Arnero 18:15, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I have repaired some of the mathematics - there is difference between approximation and true Identity (mathematics). Bracketing in one case was described as approximation, and omission of another exponential term was not given proper explanation. D. Georgiev —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.89.126.168 (talk) 16:21, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Inaccuracy
$$a \sin (\theta )=n \lambda$$ describes intensity minima for single slit diffraction, not maxima as the article currently claims (although the result is counterintuitive by the article's description). See p451 of Born and Wolf, Principles of Optics, 7th ed. Sam Harrold 04:55, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Irregular gratings etc.
It seems a little odd to me that this entry doesn't say anything about the effects of irregular gratings. We know that one slit will produce patterns, and multiple regularly spaced slits will produce sharper patterns, but what if the spaces between the slits aren't so even? This is analagous to the situation with droplets that we see with the corona (optical phenomenon) and I can think of a couple of other cases where it could be important... --Oolong (talk) 10:32, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Approximations
The formula there I've tagged with elucidate uses x - but it isn't defined. I gather from context that it's the distance normal to the path between the source and the screen to the point on the screen being examined - but I can't think of a decent way to say that. I'm no theorist, just an Engineer. Number774 (talk) 16:46, 19 August 2015 (UTC)