Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-1/section-a/a4/solution

Adjacent slit contributions have phase difference . The six-slit amplitude is a geometric sum . The first zero away from the central maximum occurs at , where the denominator is nonzero. Therefore
There is a matching zero at the negative angle. This is the first minimum of a finite slit array, rather than the much larger principal-order angle or a single-slit envelope minimum. The slits are stipulated sufficiently narrow for that envelope not to set the first zero.

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