Concept explainers
Perhaps to confuse a predator, some tropical gyrinid beetles (whirligig beetles) are colored by optical interference that is due to scales whose alignment forms a diffraction grating (which scatters light instead of transmitting it). When the incident light rays are perpendicular to the grating, the angle between the first-order maxima (on opposite sides of the zeroth-order maximum) is about 26° in light with a wavelength of 550 nm. What is the grating spacing of the beetle?
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