The diameter of a thin wire is measured in a physics laboratory by a student. The wire is held vertically in a holding frame in front of the laser beam. The laser light diffracts on the wire and produces a diffraction pattern on a white screen. The diffraction pattern is shown in the figure. The pattern is centered around the origin. 4 3 2 1 y (cm) 0 -2 -3 -4 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 x (cm) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The wavelength of the laser light is 563 nm, and the screen is 1.37 m away from the wire. What is the diameter of the wire? (Hint: one of the higher order diffraction minima lines up with a well defined x-value. Also, it is perfectly safe to use the small angle approximation: sin() = tan(#)).

The diameter of a thin wire is measured in a physics laboratory by a student. The wire is held vertically in a holding frame in front of the laser beam. The laser light diffracts on the wire and produces a diffraction pattern on a white screen. The diffraction pattern is shown in the figure. The pattern is centered around the origin. 4 3 2 1 y (cm) 0 -2 -3 -4 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 x (cm) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The wavelength of the laser light is 563 nm, and the screen is 1.37 m away from the wire. What is the diameter of the wire? (Hint: one of the higher order diffraction minima lines up with a well defined x-value. Also, it is perfectly safe to use the small angle approximation: sin() = tan(#)).