Batteries are part of everyday life, powering everything from phones and laptops to electric cars. Most rechargeable ...

What happens when a wave passes through some opening? It diffracts - or you like, you could say "bends". If the size of the opening is comparable to the wavelength of the wave, the bending can be ...

This is a rare phenomenon known as cloud iridescence.

Spectrometers are crucial scientific instruments in various research fields and have consistently served as indispensable tools for foundational research. However, the unwieldy size of conventional ...

I learned in October 2022’s Breakthrough that the spikes of stars in high-power photos are called diffraction spikes. Why do they appear as two crosses at 45 degrees to each other? The diffraction ...

Today, astronomers seek to observe the faintest and most distant objects possible. Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), with apertures in the order of several dozen meters, are the next generation ...

Students will be able to identify different types of crystal structures that occur in metals, ceramics, and polymers. Students will be able to perform standard x-ray diffraction measurements on metals ...

One of the coolest things about physics is that the same basic concept can pop up in several seemingly unrelated things: say, a CD, the seed shrimp’s antennae, certain fossils in the Burgess shale, ...

Diffraction occurs when a wave encounters an obstruction in its path and will change direction, or wrap around it. In ocean waves, we see this occur when a wave encounters an object like a jetty and ...