A telescope has an objective lens of 10 cm diameter and is situated at a distance of one kilometer from two objects. The minimum distance between these two objects, which can be resolved by the telescope, when the mean wavelength of light is 5000 Å, is of the order of

Question

Accepted Answer

5 mm. The resolving power of a telescope is determined by the Rayleigh criterion, which states that the minimum resolvable angular separation is θ = 1.22 * λ / D. Substituting λ = 5000 Å = 5 × 10⁻⁷ m, D = 0.1 m, and distance = 1000 m, the minimum resolvable distance is d = θ × distance = (1.22 × 5 × 10⁻⁷ / 0.1) × 1000 = 6.1 × 10⁻³ m ≈ 5 mm.

A telescope has an objective lens of 10 cm diameter and is situated at a distance of one kilometer from two objects. The minimum distance between these two objects, which can be resolved by the telescope, when the mean wavelength of light is 5000 Å, is of the order of

Solution

Related NEET Physics questions