Chapter 36, Problem 92P

In an experiment to monitor the Moon’s surface with a light beam, pulsed radiation from a ruby laser (λ = 0.69 µm) was directed to the Moon through a reflecting telescope with a mirror radius of 1.3 m. A reflector on the Moon behaved like a circular flat mirror with radius 10 cm, reflecting the light directly back toward the telescope on Earth. The reflected light was then detected after being brought to a focus by this telescope. Approximately what fraction of the original light energy was picked up by the detector? Assume that for each direction of travel all the energy is in the central diffraction peak.