Answer:
C) It increases to 2.0 cm
Explanation:
In a double-slit diffraction experiment, the distance on the screen between two adjacent maxima is given by
where
is the wavelength of the wave
D is the distance of the screen from the slits
d is the separation between the slits
In this problem, the initial distance between adjacent maxima is 1.0 cm. Later, the slit separation is cut in a half, which means that the new slit separation is
Substituting into the equation, we find that the new separation between the maxima is
So, the distance increases by a factor 2: therefore, the new separation between the maxima will be 2.0 cm.