Air Wedge: Aim: Apparatus

AIR WEDGE
Expt No :
Date :
Aim:
To determine the diameter of a thin wire or thickness of a thin strip of paper using air wedge method.
Apparatus:
Air wedge, Travelling microscope, Sodium vapour lamp, Reading lens, etc.
Theory:
The diameter of the wire used to form the air wedge is given by d  
2
  distance of the wire/hair from the edge at which plates are in contact (line of contact – tight edge at which
rubber band is put)
  wavelength of light used,   band width(distance between two consecutive dark bands or bright
bands).
Total reading  MSR  (VSR  LC) cm
MSR – Main Scale Reading, VSR – Vernier Scale Reading, LC – Least Count of the vernier microscope.
Procedure:
1) Switch on the Sodium vapour lamp. (It takes more than 5 minutes to emit radiations with its full
intensity – intense yellow colour).
2) Clean the glass plates thoroughly by using a towel and form an air wedge. (Air wedge is formed by
placing two optically plane glass plates one above the other and keeping a thin wire (may be a piece of
hair) in between the plates at one end or near to the end. The other end of the plates is held tight by a
rubber band so that it becomes the line of contact. It has to be made sure that the thin wire is kept
parallel to the line of contact. i.e. parallel to the breadth of the plates.)
3) Light is allowed to fall on a glass plate, which is kept at 450 to the horizontal. [Wooden box provided
with glass plate inclined at 450 is available in the lab].
4) Place the air wedge inside the wooden box such that the reflected light from the glass plate is incident
normally on the air wedge.
5) Adjust the travelling microscope which is placed vertically above the inclined glass plate and air wedge
to view the interference bands clearly. Focus the cross wires exactly.
6) Equidistant parallel dark and bright interference bands are formed. These bands are formed by the
interference of light reflected from top and bottom surfaces of air film enclosed between the two glass
plates of air wedge.
7) Before measuring, the range of microscope should be properly adjusted so that we can count 20 or
more clear bands by rotating the tangential screw.
8) Using the tangential screw one of the cross wires is made to coincide with a dark bank. This can be taken
as the n th dark band.
9) Find the Least Count (LC) of the vernier caliper (horizontal scale) on the travelling microscope.
10) Take the readings (MSR and VSR) of nth dark band most carefully on the horizontal scale without any
parallax error. (Look vertically downwards above the reading by using a reading lens.)
Note: Place the lens close to the eye and adjust the distance between the lens and scale for clear
magnified view).
11) Move the cross wire to n  2nd , n  4th ,    , n  14 th band in succession and take readings very
carefully.
12) From the tabulated readings find the width of 8 bands(X) and then find the band width ,   X .
8
13) Measure the distance of wire from the line of contact of the plates (  ).
14) Substituting the wavelength of sodium light used (  5893  1010 m), the diameter of the wire can be
calculated using the formula d    .
2
15) Angle of the air wedge can be calculated using the relation    .
2
Observations & Calculations:
Value of 1 main scale division (1MSD) = --------------- mm = ------------ cm.
Total number of divisions on the vernier scale, n = ---------
Least Count of the microscope, LC  1 MSD  ---------------- cm
n
Number of Microscope readings Width of 8 bands Mean X in Band
bands MSR VSR Total= (X) in cm cm width
(cm) MSR+VSR(LC) X cm

(cm) 8
n X0 =
n+2 X2 =
n+4 X4 = X8 – X0 =
n+6 X6 = X10 – X2=
n+8 X8 = X12 – X4=
n+10 X10 = X14 – X6=
n+12 X12 =
n+14 X14 =
Distance of the wire from the line of contact of the plates,   ------------ cm
Wavelength of sodium light = 5893 A0 = 5893  10 10 m
Diameter of the wire, d    cm = ------  --------  ---------------m.
2
Angle of the wedge,     ----------- = ------  ------------- radian.
2
Results:
Diameter of the wire = ---------------- m
Angle of the wedge = --------------- radian.

Air Wedge: Aim: Apparatus

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AIR WEDGE

Angle of the wedge = --------------- radian.

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