Interference

Interference is the superposition of waves, producing patterns of reinforcement and cancellation according to their relative phases.

Superposition principle: A rule that the combined response of a linear system equals the sum of its individual responses. Interference follows when wave displacements add according to this principle.
Double-slit experiment: An experiment in which waves or particles pass through two openings and form an interference pattern. It demonstrates how two paths produce alternating bright and dark fringes.
Michelson interferometer: An optical instrument that splits light into two paths and recombines it to measure phase differences. Its fringe shifts turn tiny path changes into measurable signals.
Diffraction: The spreading and pattern formation that occur when waves encounter openings or obstacles. Diffraction creates the paths and angular patterns in which interference appears.
Wave: A traveling disturbance that transfers energy or information through space or a medium. Interference requires waves whose oscillations can overlap.
Phase (waves): A measure of a wave’s position within its repeating cycle, often expressed as an angle. The phase difference between waves determines whether their overlap reinforces or cancels.
Young's interference experiment: Thomas Young’s early nineteenth-century experiment showing interference between light from two slits. It established a landmark wave-based explanation of light’s fringes.
Fabry–Pérot interferometer: An optical resonator formed by two reflecting surfaces that produces sharp transmission fringes. Repeated interference between reflections selects narrow ranges of wavelengths.
Polarization (waves): The orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as the electric field of light. Unlike interference, polarization concerns oscillation direction rather than phase-dependent superposition.
Wavelength: The distance between successive corresponding points on a wave, such as crest to crest. Path differences are often compared with wavelength to predict fringe positions.

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