General Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism

Cycle 1
Charge

Charge is special particles, therefore charge is generally conserved

Atoms generally have as much positive as negative charge therefore, overall they are neutral
Charge of an electron is equal, but opposite, to charge of a proton 1.6x10 -19C, where C is the units of
charge Coulombs
Very small charge, but there is a lot of them!
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How does charge behave?

Charge by Induction

A charged object can be attracted to uncharged objects as well....

Coulombs Law

Force (in Newtons) due to two charges, q1 and q2, separated by a distance r (in meters).
K determined experimentally to be 9x109 N m2 C-2

Question
Is there a third type of charge? How do we know there is only positive and negative charge?
Coulombs Law

Example
Consider a charge q1=1C at x=-1 and y=1, and a charge
q2 = -2C at x=2 and y =-2.
First, note directions they're attracted to each other
Second, calculate magnitude
and

, therefore,

Third, determine
Finally, determine x- and y-components

Now force on charge 2 due to charge 1...

Exactly the opposite direction, but equal in magnitude...

Newton's third law: Every action has an equal but opposite reaction.

Superposition
Being able to add the effects together.
Example
Determine the net force on charge 2
Lets start with Coulomb's Law,

, and as we know direction so all we need to worry about

is the magnitude.

Therefore, total force is

In principle, we can add the interactions from all charge.....

.. although in practice this is often easier said than done!

Lets consider the following case

Is there some quantity at point P, due to all the positive charge contained on the large sphere, which
would tell us the force on a point charge at P?
Electric Field

The electric field is a vector.

We can measure the electric field by putting a small 'test charge' in a given location and observing the
force which acts on the charge.
Whats the point? Given the electric field at a specific location we can calculate the force which acts on
any charge that might be positioned at this location.

Note: if charges on a body is spread out (the charged

object is large) then the electric field might not be
uniform! Different forces in different parts of the
charged body.... strictly speaking point charges only.

Electric field (E-field) is really useful!

Lines of Force or electric field lines. What direction would a positive charge move if we placed it in
this system?
Note: a couple of charges can look messy.....

. add a few more charges and it can get a little complicated. We'll try to stick to simple geometries!

Electric Fields
Charge
Opposite charges attract each other, while like charges repel each other.
Charge is conserved and quantized in particles of 1.6x10 -19C charge (electrons have negative and
protons have positive charge)
Coulombs Law
or
where k = 9x109 N m2 C-2
where

is the permittivity of free space = 8.85x10-12 C2 m-2 N-1. More on the

later...

Example
If force on charge 1 in the y-direction is zero, find the ratio between
charge 2 to charge 3.

rearranging gives

Problem
Charge
and charge

is located at x=0 and y =0.3m, charge

is located at x = 0 and y = -0.3m,
located at x = 0.4m and y = 0. Find the total force acting on Q.

Always sketch the problem!

Can you guess the force on Q in the y-direction before you do any calculations?
What if the system was less symmetric?
What if the charges where not the same?
Could q1 and q2 be arranged around Q such that the total force on Q is zero?

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Electric Field Lines

Lines show direction of force or

electric field
Spacing between lines are related to
magnitude; for a region of larger
electric field the field lines are
depicted closer together
They never cross can't have two
different net forces at the same
location!

Electric field lines go from positive to negative. They always point in the direction of force experienced
by a positive charge.

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Recall, electric field...

or

from point charge Q.

Example
What to expect?

is positive in x-direction.
is negative in x-direction.
is positive in x-direction and y
components will cancel!

Now we know what to expect we don't have to

worry about the y-direction as the electric
field in the y-direction is always zero!

where the fraction cancels as the distance is entirely in the positive x-direction. Also note the units for
electric field.

Using the principle of superposition

Similarly, the electric field in the y-direction is zero at point B

Again, using the principle of superposition

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Of course the y-component of the electric field is zero in y, as established at the beginning.
Mathematically this would arise because
.
Finally, the more interesting case of the electric field at point C. Here, we have to calculate both x- and
y-components of the electric field, but due to the symmetry of the problem we expect the y-component
to be zero.

Again, using the principle of superposition

Now for the y-direction

Again, using the principle of superposition

As we predicted at the very beginning from symmetry arguments charge 1 would push a positive
charge up as much as charge 2 would pull it down!
Note: such use of symmetry is not typical in physics, but is typical in physics problems.

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E-field lines

Knowing how many field lines enter or leave a boxed

region of space can reveal what charge must be contained in
this boxed region.

For example, a positive charge (or cluster of

charges) would result in the field lines pointing
away from the positive charges and emanating
from the boxed region.

If we have just as much negative as positive

charge inside the boxed region then just as many
field lines enter as leave the region the net
number of field lines (in minus out) is zero.

The same could be said for charge outside the boxed

region. Field lines emanating from the charge both enter
and leave the boxed region, with a net number of field lines
(in minus out) of zero.

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Electric Flux
Recall that electric field lines don't represent motion. Electric field lines represent the force that would
act on a charge if the charge was present. In this sense, the electric field isn't real its just a convenient
way to think of forces between different charged objects.
However, electric field lines look similar to fluid dynamic streamlines. Therefore, to make an analogy
with fluid motion, we have defined electric flux. If electric field lines represented motion what would
the flux of this motion be through a given area?

For a flat surface in a uniform electric field this becomes

the electric field and the normal to the area.

, where the angle is between

For a spherical object (like a particle)...

Substituting for electric field....

In other words, electric flux is a constant and depends only on charge and the permittivity of free space.

15

Electric Potential
Potential energy per unit charge
Potential energy between two charges,
Electric potential for a point charge,

Work is force multiplied with distance

16

For a radial system

for a point charge,

, which upon substitution gives

which, of course, is the electric field of a point

charge and the electric field perpendicular to the
radial direction is zero.

If you need to find the electric field at some point in space as a consequence of neighboring charges
you could add up the electric fields from each charge (superposition). However, this would require
evaluating vectors for each electric field and adding these vectors. It may be easier to add electric
potential (which is a scalar) and then take the derivative with respect to space.

17

Capacitors

Capacitance has units of Farads after Faraday.

How much charge do you store for a given voltage?
Parallel-Plate Capacitance

Capacitors store both charge and energy it would be more energetically favorable to bring the plates
closer together and allow the separated charge to recombine.
The electric field near a large plate is
and

were

is the charge density per unit area of the plate

is the permittivity of free space (we'll prove this later... in a couple of different ways)

for a constant electric field (in between the plates) the electric potential is
but by definition,
Therefore, for a parallel-plate capacitors

This is the capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor filled with air of area A and plate separation d.

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Example
How large would a parallel-plate capacitor have to be to have a capacitance of 1F (1 Farad) if the plates
are 1mm apart?

In other words the plates would have to be 10km squared to have a capacitance this high! A farad is a
very high, and impractical, value for capacitance.

Problem
Parallel plates are 5mm apart and 2m 2 in area (you can roll the plates into a cylindrical geometry to
make them more compact). A potential difference of 10kV is applied across the capacitor.
a) Find the capacitance of this parallel-plate capacitor.
b) Find the charge stored in this capacitor.
c) What is the electric field in the space between the two plates?

Problem
You need to design a capacitor which has a capacitance of
. Choose what you believe to be
practical values for area and distance to obtain a parallel-plate capacitor to this specification.
What is the electric field in between the plates of you capacitor when a voltage of 10kV is placed
across it? How does this value of electric field depend on your initial design choices? Is there any
reason to limit the value of electric field?

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Any two conductors have the potential to store charge and act as a capacitance....

. more on this later.

Energy Storage
A capacitor stores energy energy that can be released quickly, for example, during a camera flash.
But how much energy? We can determine this by considering the work done on charging a capacitor.
From the definition of capacitance, the voltage across a fully charged capacitor is
apply this to a partially charged capacitor,

, we can

, for some intermediate charge q.

From definition of voltage (work divided by charge):

Total work, therefore, is

20

Assuming the energy associated with an uncharged capacitor is zero, the potential energy of a capacitor
can be written as

where we have used

to rearrange the above expression.

Energy Density
We can also think of the energy being stored in the electric field....
Energy per unit volume (note both potential energy and energy density use the letter U)

but for a parallel-plate capacitor, with an internal electric field given by V/d, we can write this as

Which gives the electrical energy density in a vacuum due to the presence of an electric field

Problem
Consider the following circuit. What happens to the charge, voltage and stored energy when we close
the switches?

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Conductors
Imagine opposite charges being located at either end of a rod.
Opposites attract, but will the charge flow? Depends on the
rod! If its a conductor (say, copper) then yes charge will flow,
but if its an insulator (say, rubber) then charge will remain
separated.

Charges in a Conductors
Imagine an electron moving in an electric field....

Electric field is to the left.... which means the force is acting the right (electrons are negative and the Efield points in the direction of force on a positive charge).
Charges move in a chaotic way, but with a drift due to the presence of an electric field.

22

Current is defined as the net charge plowing per unit

time

units of Ampere's (C s-1)

If there are n moving charge per volume in a
conductors

where q is the charge of a single charge carrier,

1.6x10-19C and vD is the drift velocity.

The current depends on the cross-sectional area of the

wire, A, so thicker wires carry more current.
Current Density
Current Density is defined as the current per unit cross-sectional area.

where the drift velocity can be in any direction (if we remove the constraints of the wire), now making
this a vector problem.

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Example
Copper wire has a diameter of 1.02mm. It carries a current of 1.67A to a 200W bulb. The density of
free electrons is 8.5x1028 electrons per cubic meter.
Find a) the current density and b) the drift velocity.
a)

b)

or
Snails move faster........
Resistance

where V is voltage and I is current.

and power dissipated is
A resistor is an electrical component which offers
electrical resistance.

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A Series of Resistors
What happens to 3 resistors in series?

If you make a hose 3 times longer its 3 times harder to pump water through it.....

Resistors in Parallel
What happens if you connect three resistors in parallel?

Voltage is the same across all resistors, but current is different.

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Example
Consider the following circuit...

By combining the different resistors into equivalent resistors we can simplify the circuit. Once we
have solved this simple circuit we can work backwards to get a complete solution....

26

27

28

Capacitors are opposite to resistors....

In series....

In parallel...

Think about the charge on the capacitor plates....

29

Magnetism and Magnetic Fields

Above is a picture of our Earths magnetic field. Its distorted to the

right because of the sun (which here would be to the left).
Magnetic fields, or B-fields, point from north to south.
A compass point towards the geometric north pole... well no it
doesn't. The geometric north pole is actually 11 or so degrees of
from the magnetic south pole and a compass needle points south. In
fact the north of the compass needle points to the magnetic south
(which is why they called it north) and the geometric north is is
based on the axis of rotation of the Earth.
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Magnets are not like charge....

If we break a magnet we don't get
separate north and south poles (termed
monopoles), but rather two smaller
magnets.
There are no magnetic monopoles!

Magnets can also affect charge if it is moving!

is force,

is charge,

is velocity and

is

the magnetic field.

Maximum when angle is 90o!

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Rearranging, for when vectors are all normal to each other, gives

where the magnetic field, or B-field, has units of Tesla. 1T = 1N C-1 m-1 s.
Right Hand Rule (RHR)

What is the most awkward configuration?

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Magnetic Field Lines

Magnetic field lines exist as loops!

But where do they come from? What is a magnetic field?
We can generate magnetic field lines by having moving charges...

Note: Here we have another Right Hand Rule (RHR).

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34

A Solenoid

A Solenoid is a cylinder with a wire wrapped around many times.

Each wire creates a local magnetic field as current flows along it.
The magnetic field from each loop of wire builds up in the center of the solenoid to create a large
magnetic field.
The more loops of wire, the stronger the magnetic field...
The magnetic field is uniform and strong in the center.
Outside of the solenoid the magnetic field is essentially zero.

35

Magnetic Flux

which is similar to electric flux,

This is a general expression which is true for any field through any
surface.

However, lets consider a uniform field through a flat surface...

Writing down the dot product in terms of
the magnitudes of the vectors and the cosine
of the angle between them...

but in a uniform magnetic field B is a

constant, and if it passes through a flat
surface (plane) then it does so at a constant
angle...

The integration over all bits of the area of a

surface is simply the total area (recall
integration is simply the sum of such bits).

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Example
The flux through a surface, which is 3cm2 in area
and at an angle of 30o to the B-field, is 0.9m Wb.
What is the magnetic field strength?
Note: Weber, or Wb, is the unit of magnetic flux
and 1Wb = 1 T m2

Uniform B-field and the angle is zero.

37

Magnetic fields exist as loops....

Because B-fields exist entirely of loops (unlike electric fields, B-fields have no sources or sinks) the
flux through a closed surface is zero. In other words, if a surface is closed then any field line which
enters the surface must also leave...

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Magnetic Fields

Recall charge exist in loops...

and charge moving in a magnetic field experiences a force of the form

and, of course, the force is a vector.

The magnitude is given by

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Induced Magnetic Field

The magnetic field around a current-carrying wire exists as circular loops...

RHR: point your thumb in the direction of current in the wire. The curl of your fingers is in the
direction of the magnetic field.
If we wrap the wire around to create a cylindrical shape, we create a solenoid

40

Back to a charged particle moving inside a magnetic field....

What do we know about acceleration?

Is the particle accelerating?
What do we know about work?
Is work being done on the particle?
What happens to the magnitude of the velocity?

41

As there is a force there must be an acceleration, right? Of course there must....

The force is perpendicular to the velocity. Remember this came from the cross product, where the force
has to be perpendicular to both the velocity and the magnetic field. The force is also a maximum when
the angle between the velocity and magnetic field is 90o
What do we remember about work done from last semester? Well we remember the equation...
So if the direction its moving in (and the direction of the velocity) is perpendicular to the force then
work is zero. So what?
From conservation of energy, we've used
, but if W is zero then the change in kinetic energy
must be zero too.... no change in kinetic energy, no change in velocity!!!
Hang on that makes no sense, how can we have acceleration but no change in velocity? What if
velocity changes direction, but not magnitude....

42

Circular motion!

were we put the force equal to mass times the centripetal acceleration. Rearranging this, and dropping
the vector notation, we can write

this is assuming that velocity is perpendicular to magnetic field...

...if v is not perpendicular to B

Particle moves at constant velocity parallel to B-field, but moves in a circle perpendicular to B-field.
Therefore, particle travels a helical path!

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Northern Lights
Kristian Birkeland wrote the following in The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903
The knowledge gained, since 1896, in radio-activity has favoured the view to which I gave expression
in that year, namely, that magnetic disturbances on the earth, and aurora borealis, are due to corpuscular
rays emitted by the sun.
"During the period from 1896 to 1903 I carried out, in all, three expeditions to the polar regions for the
purpose of procuring material that might further confirm this opinion. I have moreover, during the last
ten years, by the aid of numerous experimental investigations, endeavoured to form a theory that
should explain the origin of these phenomena.
.we have endeavoured to prove that a current of electric corpuscles from the sun would give rise to
precipitation upon the earth, the magnetic effect of which agrees well with the magnetic field of force
that was found by the observations on the earth.

Charged particle emitted by our sun

Charged particles funneled by the earths magnetic field to polar regions.
Charged particles then collide with atmospheric particles, exciting them into higher energy state. Upon
relaxing back to their ground state these particles emit photons (light).

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Example of sufficient difficulty that it is likely to be on the final exam

Question
Take a proton (q = 1.6x10-19C and m = 1.67x10-27kg) in a magnetic field in the x-direction of
magnitude, B = 0.5T. At a given time the proton has a velocity of

Find the particles acceleration, and the radius and pitch of the helical path. The pitch is defined as the
distance traveled along the the helix axis per revolution.
Answer

which can be written in component form as

The geometry of the problem is usually chosen to simplify the expressions here the force is all in the
y-direction!

and

Now lets look at the geometry of the helical path our particle is traveling...

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Radius

or 4.18mm
The angular speed is
given by

and the period is

where we use

because we are interested in the time it takes for

the particle to go round in a circle
perpendicular to the B-field.

Now the pitch is simply

, or simply speed multiplied by time. We use the velocity component
parallel to the B-field (in the x-direction) as the helical axis (and hence the direction of the pitch) is in
this direction.

or the pitch is 19.7mm.

46

James Clerk (Dafty) Maxwell

Moving charge, and changing electric fields, creates a magnetic field.

But, from Faraday's law, a changing magnetic field creates an electric field...

Lets take another look at charge and magnetic field....

47

A Moving Charged Particle

The magnetic field induced by a moving charge is

where

is the permeability of free space (a constant), q is charge, v is the velocity and r the distance

from particle to where the magnetic field is calculated. Recall the hat on a vector indicates that it is a
unit vector of length 1.

is perpendicular to both

is largest when

and

and

are perpendicular to each other

The above equation is another example of an inverse square law

48

A moving charge creates a magnetic field, and if a charge moves in a magnetic field it experiences a
force...
Question
Two protons move past each other. What are the forces on the top proton as they pass? What is the ratio
between electric and magnetic forces?
Answer

Electric force is easy, right?

At the moment they pass,

is perpendicular to . The magnetic field due to the bottom proton is

This magnetic field is pointing out of the page, and induces a force on the top proton.
If we look at the components the force in the y-direction is the only non-zero component and is
(upwards)

So whats the ratio?

Note that the permittivity, permeability and c, the speed of light in a vacuum, are all related. Why?
We'll get to that in a minute....
For now, notice that the magnetic forces are only comparable to the electrical forces as the speed of the
particles approach the speed of light!
What if the bottom particle was stationary, and the top particle traveled twice as fast. Why should it
make any difference? Recall velocity is all relative to something, and the forces between two particles
shouldn't depend on an arbitrary reference frame....
49

What if instead of just one charge we have lots of charge... a current!

Biot-Savart Law

We'll come back to the Biot-Savart Law in the next cycle.... for now look at the above equation and the
diagram. The integration is over the length of the wire, and the magnetic field is perpendicular to both
the path of the wire and the distance from the wire.

50

Faraday's Law

This is the electromotive force (or EMF) produced in a loop of wire by a changing magnetic flux. For
multiple loops (i.e., a coil) we have to multiply this by the number of loops.
EMF is like voltage it induces a current in the wire and has the units of Volts. However, EMF exists
around the loop of wire....
The magnetic flux is given by

. How can this change with respect to (wrt) time?

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Note: The BIG Picture!

A changing B-field creates loops of E-field.

If we put a loop of wire in this E-field then the charges will move in response to the electric field... we
have an EMF.

52

Question

Imagine a B-field is at 60o to a coil of wire loops. The coil of wire has 500 loops with a radius of 4cm.
If B is reduced from 5T to 4T in 5 seconds, what is the average induced EMF?
Answer

where the angle is 30o (between the magnetic field and the normal of the plane)

Which upon putting this into Faraday's law gives

53

Maxwell's Discovery!
If current, or changes in electric field, induce a magnetic field and changes in magnetic fields causes
changes in electric fields....

Self-propagating wave! The E-field, B-field and direction of propagation are all perpendicular to each
other.... electromagnetic waves or light!
54

Question

The light is traveling into the page. The dashed line is just the x-axis.
1. If bulb A is not lit, which is brightest bulb B or bulb C?
2. Would bulb A glow brighter if the wire was parallel to the direction of light propagation?

55

Light and Rainbows

What is light made of? Electromagnetic waves? Particles?

Well both. Sometimes you can see wave-like properties and at other times particle-like properties. But
this isn't confined to photons (light particles), but to all particles!!
Reflection and Refraction
In optically dense materials, light slows down.

where n is the index of refraction which is different for different materials (and can be different for
different wavelengths too). c is the speed of light in a vacuum and v is the speed of light in the material.
Some typical values of n are nair = 1, nwater = 1.333 and nglass = 1.5 1.7.

Going from fast to slow causes the direction to bend refraction!

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Law of reflection
Angle of incidence is equal to angle of reflection

Snell's Law
Describing how light bends upon refraction

The refraction of light can make things appear different

than they really are. For example, the depth of swimming
pool may be deeper than it appears because of the
refraction of light as it leaves the water.
A spoon in water can appear as if it is broken when in
reality it is whole.

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Symmetry

Back to waves for a moment.... velocity is wavelength (in meters) multiplied by frequency (in Hertz)
Frequency of light is related to its energy (we'll discuss this later) so if velocity changes the wavelength
changes... here's the wavelength in a material with an index of refraction, n, in terms of the wavelength
of light in a vacuum, .

58

Question
If

, find

Answer

therefore,

and

Now looking at the glass-water interface...

and
Notice we could have done this slightly quicker by realizing

Anyway, given that the thickness of both layers is

59

Total Internal Reflection

For a glass rod in air what is the critical angle for total internal reflection

Therefore

60

Rainbows
Dispersion - different colored light travel at different speeds in the same material. In other words, the
index of refraction is frequency-dependent.
Angular Difference
Imagine, that in glass nred = 1.5 and nviolet = 1.51

if

The angular difference, therefore, is

Richard of York gave battle in vain.

61

Physics of Rainbows
Water droplets disperse the white light from the sun, resulting in an angular difference between red and
violet light which emerge from a water droplet, subsequent to a refraction, a reflection and another
refraction.

Sun is far away so that the white light appears to be come from the same direction rays of incident
light are parallel.
Because of the angular difference we see the red light from higher rain drops (an angle of 42.5 o from
the direction of sunlight) and the violet light from lower raindrops (an angle of 40.8 o from the direction
of sunlight).
Because the effect is associated with the angle from the direction of sunlight, a rainbow appears as an
arch in the sky. Strictly speaking, the rainbow is a circle but only part of the circle is present... usually.

62

However, a weaker secondary rainbow can also be seen if light undergoes two internal reflections...

As mentioned, the different angles result in a circular pattern.

63

You have to be high to see the full circle... like in a plane. Recall, the angle of light is relative to the
direction of sunlight. Hence, the planes shadow in the center.

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But why those specific angles?

As light enters a spherical object (i.e., a rain drop) from the sun all of the lines of incident light are
parallel. Upon refraction, reflection and a second refraction a maximum intensity occurs at around
40.8o to 42.5o, depending on wavelength.

Similarly, light which undergoes two internal reflections, also produces a maximum intensity at around
50o to 53o. However, upon a second internal reflection some of the intensity is lost (this is not a total
internal reflection) and the secondary rainbow is fainter.

The above figures depict a ray-tracing of light in spherical droplets. In reality both of the above would
occur at the same time in a rain droplet (along with lots of other rays which don't result in rainbows).

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Interference

Recall that a wave has periodic peaks and troughs. Interference occurs when two waves overlap...

Destructive Interference
When a peak overlaps with a trough the waves cancel each other out.
Constructive Interference
When a peak overlaps with a peak, or a trough with a trough, the waves combine to make a larger peak,
or deeper trough, respectively.
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Constructive interference occurs when two waves are in phase.

Destructive interference occurs when two waves are in anti-phase (180o out of phase).
The two dimensional pattern, therefore, emerges from the distances traveled by the two waves and
their wavelength. For two waves with the same wavelength, constructive interference will occur
when...

...the difference in length traveled (from source to some other point in space) is a multiple of
wavelengths. Here, m is an integer (m = 0, 1, 2, 3,...).

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Young's Double-Slit Experiment

Interference pattern was observed by Thomas Young in 1803 proved that light was a wave!

From geometry (and using SOHCAHTOA), path difference is

For constructive interference

For destructive interference the waves have to be 180o out of phase,

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Question
Imagine the two slits from Young's double slit experiment are 0.2mm apart and the screen is 1m away.
If the 3rd bright fringe is 9.49mm from the brightest fringe, in the center of the pattern, find the
wavelength.
Answer
First, what do we have?

We have d and m=3.

But we don't have
So we need

and we're looking for

and, for small angles,

(check this on your calculator)

Note: we could predict the position of bright and dark fringes from the geometry of the experiment and
the wavelength of light. But calculating the wavelength of light from the observed pattern is much
more interesting!
From the equation

note that if the wavelength is increased, or if the distance between the slits is decreased, then the
interference pattern will appear more spread out.

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Thin-film interference
Light that reflects from the top of a thin film will
have a different path than light which first
refracts into the film and is then reflected from
the bottom layer. Difference in path length
implies interference!
Things to consider

The distance traveled by each ray

The number of wavelengths this distance is equivalent to (and recall that

material).
Phase inversion. What?

inside the

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Normal incidence (ignoring angles for now)

Lets look at the different paths
1. No extra distance traveled by path.
-cycle phase shift (nair < nglass)
2. Travels an extra distance of 2d (there and
back again).
-cycle phase shift (nglass < nmirror)
As both rays will undergo a cycle phase shift this will cancel. Therefore, path difference in terms of
the number of wavelengths is

N = 0.
Thickness is zero. This is a silly answer.
N = m + .
The waves of the two paths are out of phase and no light is observed!
N=m+1
The waves of the two paths are in phase and the reflected light appears bright

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Question
Imagine a soap film (air-soapy water-air) of thickness

, and refractive index, n, of 1.5 with

white light normal to the film. Which wavelengths in the optical range (400nm to 700nm) will appear
brightest?
Answer
Lets consider the paths
1. No extra distance and a -cycle phase shift.
2. Light travels a distance of 2d, but there is no phase shift upon reflection (nfilm > nair)

therefore, we can rearrange this

We now tabulate the wavelengths (if the waves were in vacuum) which will be reflected constructively
as a function of the number of wavelengths difference, N.
N
1

2000nm

1200nm

850nm

infrared

666nm

red

540nm

green/yellow

460nm

indigo

400nm

violet

350nm

ultraviolet

320nm

Therefore, the light that we see is a combination of these wavelengths!

This is why thin film interference often appears metallic. Think of an oil film on water, while you see
rainbow patterns the colors are pale and shiny. The colors consist of lots of wavelengths. Furthermore,
the above wavelengths are the brightest, but other wavelengths will be reflected also (just to a lesser
extent). Can you predict which wavelengths won't be reflected?
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