The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

DIFFRACTION

Diffraction is a term applied to certain phenomena connected with the modification that rays of light undergo in passing close to the edge of an opaque body. Thus when a beam of direct sunlight is admitted into a dark room through a narrow slit, and falls upon a screen placed to receive it, there appears a line of white light bordered by coloured fringes; these fringes are produced by diffraction.
Research Diffraction