Description
These inexpensive yet very accurate diffraction gratings are ideally suited for the Open Spectrometer. You can also use it for diffraction experiments with coherent light sources, e.g. to determine the wavelength of a laser based on the diffraction pattern (due to safety concerns, we did not include it as an Ciênsação experiment)
These diffraction gratings are manufactured by embossing a precise pattern of tiny linear grooves – exactly 1000 per millimeter – into a plastic foil. For better handling, the foil is held in a cardboard frame. Because cleaning could easily damage the fine pattern, please remind your students to hold the grating only by the cardboard frame and to avoid touching the foil.
Alternatives: If you just want to show the effect of diffraction, but have no intentions of making a quantitative measurement, you could also use a CD to see separate spectral lines of a fluorescent light source. When working with a laser pointer, an engaging experiment is to measure the width of a hair you hold into the laser beam – making use of Babinet's principle.
Experiments
Spectrometers are usually closed boxes. This spectrometer, in contrast, is literally open, and allows with simple means and basic math to measure for instance the spectral bands of a fluorescent light bulb.
Specification
Details of a single diffraction grating:
| Material |
clear polyester film with cardboard frame |
| Frame dimensions |
51 x 51 x 1 mm |
| Grating dimensions |
24 x 35 mm |
| Grating period |
1000 lines/mm, grooves parallel to the shortest dimension |
| Weight |
1.65 g |
Sets
For your information, these are the prices of a single diffraction grating in different sets:
| Personal |
1.320€ |
| Small Class Set |
0.943€ |
| Regular Class Set |
0.820€ |
In case you prefer a different set size, you can order multiple personal sets – if the overall size exceeds the limits for small or regular class sets, the unit price is automatically adjusted. Please avoid combining different set sizes of the same product, since the system will not be able to adjust unit prices accordingly.
Our primary goal is to put science into the hands of school kids. These prices are therefore optimized for class sets, assuming a regular class size of up to 32 students. Classroom tests have shown that the open spectrometer experiment is best mastered by groups of 4 to 5 students. The regular class set consists therefore of 8 gratings.
By paying a bit more for a personal set, you help us to offer class sets at a low price.
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Open spectrometer
