Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/7/a/2/solution

The slide adds an optical path length in the covered path. If the covered slit is at positive transverse position, its geometric path to is shorter, giving total path difference . The zero-difference fringe therefore moves toward that slit:
This is about fringe periods. The leading grating-angle correction, and , gives mm, consistent with the paraxial result. In a strictly monochromatic periodic pattern, identifying the continuously tracked central order is essential: the final intensity pattern determines displacement only modulo one fringe spacing.

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