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3.5 Exercise 38

Avg difficulty 2.5

A 5.08-cm-long rectangular glass chamber is inserted into one arm of a Michelson interferometer using a 633-nm light source. This chamber is initially filled with air (n=1.000293)\left(n = 1.000293\right) at standard atmospheric pressure but the air is gradually pumped out using a vacuum pump until a near perfect vacuum is achieved. How many fringes are observed moving by during the transition?

OpenStax University Physics Volume 3, 3.5 The Michelson Interferometer, exercise 38

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Adapted from University Physics Volume 3 © 2016 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: University Physics Volume 3. Imported at revision db44eb9.