Results and Discussion

When white light passes through the tiny slits in the diffraction grating, it breaks up into its constituent colors,
each color interfering constructively at different positions. Hence, the condition for constructive interference is used,

PD=d sin =m (1)

where d is the distance between grooves, is the angular displacement, is the wavelength of the emission lines,
and m is the order of diffraction and is integer-valued (m=0,1,...). From the equation,

1
d= (2)
D

D, which is the diffraction grating constant, could be solved from the value of d.
Substituting (2) in (1), we get

sin =mD (4)

It is expected that graphically, mD will be the slope of the sin vs graph. In this experiment, for first-order
colors, we use m=1 and m=2 for second-order colors. So the slope will only be equal to D. The experimental
diffraction grating can be compared to the theoretical diffraction grating, and we can get the percent error by
applying,

|Dexperimental Dtheoretical|
percent error= (3)
D theoretical

Table 1: Alignment of the Diffraction Grating in the Spectrometer

Direct Image Direct Image Color Line Color Line CCW Absolute
CW Difference Difference
Angle CW Angle CCW Angle CW Angle CCW Difference
17913 45 178.55 4.528 043 053 010
17810 512 175.515 820 225 38 043
1782 525 17218 111 544 536 08

Table 1 shows the direct image angle used in the experiment and the confirmed alignment of the grating in the
spectrometer with a mean difference of 30.5.

Table 2: First Order Average Angular Displacement on Diffraction Grating Constant (100 lines/mm)
Angular Experimental Theoretical %Error
Grating Color sin
Displacement Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Violet 1.529 0.0346 346.08 404.66 14.48%
Blue Violet (Bright) 229 0.0433 433.28 435.83 0.585%
Blue Green (Faint) 3 0.0523 523.35 491.60 6.459%
Green (Bright) 342 0.0645 645.32 546.07 18.18%
Yellow (Bright) 322 0.0587 587.25 579.06 1.414%

Table 3:Second Order Average Angular Displacement on Diffraction Grating Constant (100 lines/mm)

Grating Color Angular Displacement sin Experimental Theoretical %Error

 Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Violet 425 0.077 385.04 404.66 4.85%
Blue Violet (Bright) 4.524 0.0854 427.08 435.83 2.01%
Blue Green (Faint) 548 0.101 505.28 491.60 2.78%
Green (Bright) 610 0.107 537.10 546.07 1.64%
Yellow (Bright) 645 0.1175 587.68 579.06 1.49%

Tables 2 and 3 above shows the average angular displacement swept by the telescope in the spectrometer, which
corresponds to the angular displacement of the light diffracted. It also shows the corresponding diffraction grating
constant for each wavelength and angular displacement. The experimental wavelength was computed by using
equation 1. Values are close to their respective theoretical values which validates the condition for constructive
interference.
From the tables, we can observe that the higher the diffraction grating constant, the farther the distance of the
spectral lines from the maximum band, which is manifested by the average angular displacement.

Figure 2: Wavelength of Colored Bands using a Mercury Lamp

Figure 2 shows the wavelength of colored bands emitted from the light source in a mercury lamp.
 Diffraction Grating Constant(First Order)
0.07
0.06 f(x) = 0.01x + 0.03
R = 0.84
0.05
0.04
sin 0.03

0.02
0.01
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5

Theoretical Wavelength(mm)

Figure 3: Sin vs Wavelength (Diffraction Grating Constant 1)

Figure 3 above shows the graph of sin vs wavelength. From the equation generated from the graph, diffraction
grating constant 1st order = 144.927 lines/mm. Hence, we have 44.92% error from the real diffraction grating
constant which is 100 lines/mm.

Diffraction Grating Constant(Second Order)

0.14
0.12
f(x) = 0.01x + 0.07
0.1
R = 0.99
0.08
sin 0.06

0.04
0.02
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5

Theoretical Wavelength(mm)

Figure 4: Sin vs Wavelength (Diffraction Grating Constant 2)

Figure 4 above shows the graph of sin vs wavelength. From the slope of the equation shown in the graph,
diffraction grating constant 2nd order = 97.087 lines/mm. Hence, we have 2.91% error from the real diffraction
grating constant which is 100 lines/mm. This is because by assuming the spectrometer was perfectly focused and the
diffraction grating was perfectly aligned thus minute errors were neglected. Also the small graduations of the
vernier caliper might have affected the measurement of the diffraction angles and thus contributing to the error.
Lastly, the imperfect measurements might also contribute while measuring the angle of diffraction.

Acknowledgements
This experiment was done with the help of lab instructor, Mr. Hernanie Salazar.

References
[1] http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Spectrometers/Spectrometers.html
[2] http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m309-03a/m309-projects/krzak/index.html
[3] http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/mch/diff.rxml