Diffraction Grids

These grids can be printed on transparency film and used for experiments with diffraction. They print well on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5M but haven't been tested on other laser printers. They may not work well on other laser printers because they are sensitive to the resolution of the printer. With high resolution printers it may be possible to print finer (and better) grids but with lower resolution printers it may not be possible to print grids of adequate quality. You can experiment by changing the values of finest and finer in the postscript programs.

The basic idea for these grids came from a talk given by Art Ellis from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin. The Web site Education Activities in Chemistry at UW-Madison is a rich source of activities in Chemistry.

• Full page one-way grid. This postscript file prints one "grid" with fine parallel lines. There are 60 line pairs per inch.
  • Acrobat (.pdf) file
  • Postscript (.ps) file
  

• Full page two-way grid. This postscript file prints one "grid" with fine parallel lines in a grid pattern. There are 60 line pairs per inch both horizontally and vertically.
  • Acrobat (.pdf) file
  • Postscript (.ps) file

  

• Twelve copies of a two-way grid. This postscript file prints twelve copies of a "grid" with fine parallel lines in a grid pattern. There are 60 line pairs per inch both horizontally and vertically. Each copy has four sections. One section is clear; one section has just horizontal lines; one section has just vertical lines; and one section has both horizontal and vertical lines.
  • Acrobat (.pdf) file
  • Postscript (.ps) file
  

• Twelve copies of a three-way grid. This postscript file prints twelve copies of a "grid" with fine parallel lines in a grid pattern. There are very fine lines with 60 line pairs per inch and somewhat less fine lines with 50 line pairs per inch. Each copy has nine sections. One section is clear; one section has just 60 line pair per inch horizontal lines; one section has just 60 line pair per inch vertical lines; one section has just 50 line pair per inch horizontal lines; one section has just 48 line pair per inch vertical lines; and the other sections have the various possible combinations of horizontal and vertical lines.
  • Acrobat (.pdf) file
  • Postscript (.ps) file