Single and Double Slit diffraction - A-level physics

A detailed description and explanation of single and double slit diffraction, the geometry of each phenomena and the important differences between the two.

This is suitable for use with AQA A-level physics but can easily be edited to be used with OCR (variables for fringe spacing (w needs replacing with x) and slit spacing (s needs replacing with a) are slightly different)

As this explanation requires the small angle approximation (which may be known by those studying A-level maths) and the assumption that 2 rays that are clearly not parallel are in fact parallel the presence of hypnotoad on the first slide and a relaxing picture of a cat in a box on the second will hopefully make these leaps of faith manageable for students… silly I know but what can you do?

This is best accompanied by exam questions from Exampro, I have not included those here due to copyright although the answers to the questions that I selected are included in the PowerPoint.