Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/9/c/solution

The slide adds optical path length to the covered beam. Put the covered slit at transverse coordinate . For positive screen coordinate its geometrical path is shorter by approximately , so the total covered-minus-uncovered optical path difference is
The zero-order fringe follows equal total optical path lengths, . Hence
The covered beam needs a shorter geometric path to compensate its extra optical path length. This is the paraxial estimate; exact point-to-point distances give . “Central” here follows the zero-order fringe continuously as the slide is introduced. At one fixed wavelength, the final monochromatic wave interference pattern is periodic, so intensity alone identifies a fringe position only modulo the fringe spacing. Slide reflections and absorption have been neglected.

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