Bragg's Law
Bragg's Law was derived by
physicists Sir W.H. Bragg and Sir W.L. Bragg in 1913. The law
explains how faces of crystals diffract x-ray beams at certain
angles. This law provided direct evidence for the presence of
atoms and their structure. The Bragg father and son were awarded
with a Nobel Prize in 1915 for their work in determining the
atomic structure of several molecules including sodium chloride
and zinc sulfide.
Bragg's Law was
originally used to determine the interference of x-rays and the
diffraction, but it was quickly adapted by other scientific
fields to determine crystalline structures of interest.
X-rays that
diffract off the surface of a crystal travel a smaller distance
than rays diffracting from atoms inside the crystal. This causes
the rays to be reflected and then detected at varying levels of
intensity--closer atoms and higher intensity, further atoms and
lower intensity.
Bragg's Law
was derived by physicists Sir W.H. Bragg and Sir W.L. Bragg in
1913. The law explains how faces of crystals diffract x-ray
beams at certain angles. This law provided direct evidence for
the presence of atoms and their structure. The Bragg father and
son were awarded with a Nobel Prize in 1915 for their work in
determining the atomic structure of several molecules including
sodium chloride and zinc sulfide.
