Observation Method and Observation Results:

1.
In this experiment the shadow of candle produce by the reflection of He-Ne
laser. The method of observation is based on Schlieren Technique. Different result
was obtain when the knife edge is at different position to the focal point.
When the knife edge was at the focal point, a ray of red light was produced at
the left side of the candle ends shadow (as in figure 1). The background of the
shadow was black. When the knife edge was moved a by a small distance meaning
that the focal point was shifted a bit. A black ray of light can be seen at the right
side of the candle ends shadow (as in figure 2). The background was totally red.
When the knife edge was moved by a large distance meaning that the focal point
was shifted a lot, there was not light ray produce at the end of the candles shadow.
The background was totally red.
2.
The reason why only one part of the candle was bright when the knife edge
was at the focal point is because, only one part of the candle light was refracted
during the experiment. When the beam hit the first concave mirror the light was
reflected, but when the knife edge obstruct the path of light at the focal point
during reflection of light, the ray was deflected preventing the light to pass through
hence making the background to be black. But because of the second concave a
part (left part) of the candle light can be seen due to the reflection of light through
the second concave mirror.
The use of differential interferometry implies data integration to get the full
gas density and this integration results in a certain measurement inaccuracy. When
the beam light heat the candle fire, a gas was form. The candle light act as an
obstruction to the beam light because the beam light and the candle light have
different density, making refraction of light to happened. This caused an
interference of light, which cause the beam light to bend into the candle light (as in
figure 4). Since different type of gasses have different density or optical density
value, hence we can determine the wavelength of beam light through this
experiment.
3.
This experiment mainly used the method called Schlieren Technique. This
method involves intercepting the light rays by using knife edge which caused the
light ray to be deflected. When the optical density is different, the results of
deviations of the light beams varies. This experiment is very useful during
determination of types of beam light used and the wavelength of the light.

Aim of Experiment:
To measure the temperature of a candle flame and the effects of density on
refraction light using a laser interferometry. This experiment was also aimed to see
the application of Schlieren Technique.

Observation:
During the experiment we faced a lot of difficulties in setting up the concave mirrors
and the knife edge. While trying to find the right angle to produce the corrects
image, we found that the two concave mirrors must be perpendicular to each other
and the focal length of the mirrors must be equal to each other in order for the
experiment to be successful.

Conclusion:
From this experiment we can conclude that light rays bend (refracted) when passing
through different medium with different density. When the density is low, the speed
of light increase and the temperature also increases (Charless Law). This caused
the image to form to have dark and bright sides. We can also conclude that when
the knife edge was at the focal point only a partition of shadow to be bright while
the other to be dark. As the knife edge distance becomes farther away from the
focal point the image produce becomes brighter.

Thoughts:
The experiment could have been better if we discovered the position of the mirror
faster and the importance of focal length.

References:
Journal Aerospace Lab, Issue 1, December 2009-Shadow,Schliren and Colour
Interferometry (Jean-Michel Desse and Ruy Deron)