At night a car's two headlights

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Optics & Photonics · Interference and diffraction · Fourier optics and image formation

Optics and Photonics, Ch Fraunhofer diffraction from apertures and gratings

Problem

At night a car's two headlights,

1.5

m apart, approach along a straight road. An observer's pupil is dilated to

6.0

mm and the light has an effective wavelength of

555

nm. ((a)) Estimate the observer's angular resolution using the Rayleigh criterion. ((b)) Estimate the greatest distance at which the observer can still just tell that there are two separate headlights rather than one point of light.

Related theory

Interference and diffraction

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