Jyothy Institute of Technology.

Department of Physics

Engineering Physics Lab Viva Questions with Answer

For the First/Second Semester B.E

Determination of wavelength of LASER source using Diffraction Grating

1) What is diffraction of light?

The phenomenon of bending of light around the corners of small obstacles and hence its encroachment into the region of geometrical
shadow.

2) What is grating?
A grating is a device consists of a large number of parallel slits of the same width separated by equal opaque spaces.

3) What is grating constant?

The distance between two adjacent opaque lines in the grating.

4) What is LASER?
Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. It is a coherent and highly monochromatic source of light.

5) What is the principle of laser?

Stimulated emission, population inversion and metastable state.

6) What is the condition required for diffraction?

The size of the obstacle must be of the size of the wavelength of laser light .

7) What are the different types of diffractions

Fresnel diffraction: Here the distance between source and screen is finite. The wave fronts are spherical.
Fraunhofer diffraction: The distance between the source and the screen is infinite. The wave fronts travelling through the grating are
parallel.

8) What do you mean by order of spectrum?

Due to superposition, numbers of bands are produced on either side of the central maxima and are called order of spectrum.

9) What is a wavelength?
Wavelength is the distance between corresponding points of two consecutive waves.

10) What kind of laser is used in the experiment?

Semiconductor laser is used in the experiment.

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Transistor characteristics

1. What is a transistor?
A transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device consisting of two P-N junctions.

2. Why is it called so?.

Transistor term is derived from the combination of two words “transfer” and “resistor”. When transistors are used in circuits the variations
in the low resistance input circuit are transferred to high resistance output circuit.

3. Name the three regions in a transistor .

They are emitter, base and collector.

4. What is the role of emitter, base and collector of a transistor?

Emitter supplies a large number of majority charge carriers of current through the device. Base controls the flow of charges through
the device. Collector collects the majority charge carriers supplied by the emitter.

5. What is the significance of arrow mark in the symbol of a transistor?

The arrow mark is always on the emitter and it signifies the direction of conventional currents .

6. Mention some applications of a transistor.

It can be used as (i) a switch (ii) an amplifier (iii) inverter.

7. Which is the most commonly used transistor arrangement ?

Common emitter is the most commonly used transistor arrangement.

8. Why CE mode is more often used in the transistor circuit?

CE mode is used more often because of high input impedance, high voltage gain, high current gain, and power gain.

9. Explain the input and output characteristics.

Input characteristics relate the input voltage with input current at a constant output voltage. In this experiment the base current I B is the
input current, VBE is the input voltage and VCE is the output voltage. The input characteristics are the curves obtained by plotting I B verses
VBE at constant VCE. Output characteristics relate the output voltage with output current at a constant input current. In this experiment
the collector current IC is the output current, VCE is the output voltage and IB is the input current. The o/p characteristics are the curves
obtained by plotting IC verses VCE at constant IB.

10. In which region the transistor is operating?

It works in Active region.

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SERIES AND PARALLEL RERONANCE

1. What is meant by resonance?

It is a phenomenon in which frequency of the applied signal matches with the frequency of the components connected in the circuit.

2. What is the condition for resonance?

Resonance takes place when the Inductive reactance is equal to the capacitive reactance.

3. Define resonance frequency.

The frequency at resonance occurs is called as resonant frequency.
4. Why current is maximum in series resonance and minimum parallel Resonance circuit?
At resonance, the impedance is minimum in series circuit where as in parallel circuit, impedance is maximum

5. What is meant by band width'?

It is that range of applied frequency at which effective value of ac (1 r,„, ) flows in the circuit

6. What is the physical significance of Q-factor?

It is a measure of sharpness of resonance. If the quality factor is high, the band width is low and vice versa. Or if the quality factor
is high the growth (or decay) of current is quick.

7. Wh y parallel LCR circuit is often referred to as rejector circuit?

Current decrease with increase in the frequency from low frequency to resonant frequency and hence is called rejecter circuit.

8. Why series LCR circuit is often referred to as acceptor circuit?

Current increase with increase in the frequency from low to resonant frequency and hence is called acceptor circuit.

9. What is importance of resonance circuit?

It can be used as a tuning circuit in radio or in transmitter circuit.

10. Define quality factor `Q’ of a circuit?

It is the ratio of resonant frequency to the band width.

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Young’s modulus of a beam by Single Cantilever

1. Define stress and strain and state their units.

The restoring force developed per unit area of the body is known as stress. Its unit is Nm -2 . The change in dimension to the
original dimension is known as strain. It has no unit.

2. State Hooke's law.

Hooke's law states that for small deformation, the ratio of stress to strain is a constant within the elastic limit.

3. Define Modulus of Elasticity?

The ratio of any stress to the strain is called modulus of elasticity. It is measured in N/m2.

4. What is Young’s modulus?

The ratio of longitudinal stress to longitudinal strain, within the elastic limits is called young’s modulus of the material. Its unit is N/m2.

5. What is a cantilever?
When one end of a horizontal beam is fixed and the other end is free, it is called a cantilever.
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6. What is Elasticity?
The property by virtue of which a body tends to regain its original shape and size (Original configuration or dimensions) when the deforming
forces are removed.

7. What is elastic limit?

It is the upper limit of the deforming force up to which if the deforming force is removed, the body completely regains its original condition, and
beyond which the body loses its elasticity and becomes permanently deformed .

8. What is deformation?
Any body which is not free to move when acted upon by a suitable force, undergoes a change in its geometrical shape. This change in the
shape is called deformation.

9. Why the beam is to be loaded?

To generate linear stress in the beam.

10. Why the depression is measured?

To estimate the corresponding linear strain produc ed due to the application of linear stress.

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Determination of Spring Constant in Series & Parallel combination

1. Define spring constant.

It is a measure of the stiffness of the spring.

2. Define elasticity.
Property by virtue of which materials regain their original shape and size after the removal of deforming forces.

3. State Hook’s law.

It states that Stress is directly proportional to strain within the elastic limit.

4. What is restoring force?

Restoring force is a force that gives rise to equilibrium in a physical system.

5. Define elastic materials.

Elastic materials are those which retain their original dimensions afer the removal of deforming forces.

6. Define spring constant in series.

Two or more springs are said to be in Series when they are connected end-to-end.

7. Define spring constant in parallel.

Two or more springs are said to be in Parallel when they are connected side by side.

8. What is elastic limit?

The point beyond which the body ceases to be elastic is known as elastic limit.

9. What is deformation?
Any body which is not free to move when acted upon by a suitable force, undergoes a change in its geometrical shape. This change in
the shape is called deformation.

10. What is modulus of elasticity?

The ratio of the stress applied to a body or substance to the resulting strain within the elastic limit.

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Fiber Optic Apparatus for determination of Numerical Aperture and acceptance angle of an optical Fiber

1. What are optical fibers?

Optical fibers are essentially light guides used in optical communications as waveguides.

2. Define core.
The inner part which is a cylindrical material, is made of glass or plastic and is called the core.

3. Define cladding.
The outer part which is a concentric cylinder surrounding the core, is called cladding.

4. What is Total internal reflection?

When a ray of light travel from denser to a rarer medium, at an angle of incidence greater than critical angle, the ray is not reflected but it is
reflected into the same denser medium. This property is called total internal reflection.

5. Define acceptance angle.

Acceptance angle is the maximum angle of incidence at which light may enter the fiber in order to propagate.

6. Define Numerical aperture.

Numerical aperture is a measure of its gathering capacity and is denoted as the sine of acceptance angle.

7. Mention the types of Optical fiber.

Single mode fiber, Step-index Multimode fiber and Graded-index Multimode fiber.

8. Mention few applications of Optical fiber.

Lasers for surgeries, data storage, telecommunications, and networking.

9. What is the critical angle?

The angle of incidence beyond which rays of light passing through a denser medium to the surface of a less denser medium are no longer
refracted but totally reflected.

10. Where is fiber optic cable most commonly used ?

Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find wide usage in fiber-
optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than
electrical cables.

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Determination of Magnetic field intensity at the centre of a circular coil carrying current(Steward and Gee)
1. What is magnetic field?
The magnetic field is the area around a magnet in which there is magnetic force.

2. What is magnetic flux?

The total number of magnetic field lines penetrating an area is called the magnetic flux.

3. What will be the Magnetic field value at the center of a current carrying coil?
At the center of a current carrying coil, the magnetic field intensity is directly proportional to the current and inversely proportional to the
radius of the coil. So, if the current is doubled and radius is halved, then the value of B increases by 4 times the initial value.

4. What is the unit of magnetic field intensity H?

The SI Unit of magnetic field intensity is Tesla.

5. What is the working principle of Stewart and Gee experiment?

It’s working is based on the principle of the tangent law of magnetism.

6. Why does heating a magnet decrease its magnetic field?

Because when you heat the magnet the heat causes the domains to detach and not align so the magnetic field decreases.

7. When does a current carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field experiences a maximum force?
It experiences maximum force when it is placed perpendicular to the direction of magnetic field.

8. Why is there an electric field in a current carrying conductor?

Because the electrons can't just escape from the conductor, they can only shield the field inside the conductor and not outside
the conductor.

9. What is Biot-Savart law?

Is an equation describing the magnetic field generated by a constant electric current.

10. What is deflection method?

The method of electrical measurements in which the deflection of the index of the measuring instrument is used as the measure of
the current or other element under examination.

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DIELECTRIC CONSTANT

1. What are dielectrics? Give examples.

Dielectrics are insulators. They do not have free electrons and hence do not conduct electricity. The dielectric material shows the
polarization of charges. Ex: air, glass, plastic, water etc.

2. What is polarization of charges?

When a dielectric slab is placed in an electric field, the positive & negative charges induced on the opposite faces of a dielectric due to the
electric polarization is called polarization of charges.

3. What is dipole moment?

The product of magnitude of either charge or the distance between the charges.

4. What happens when dielectric is introduced between the plates of the capacitor?
Charge remains unaltered, electric field strength and potential between the plates decreases and capacitance of the capacitor increases.

5. Define Dielectric constant.

It is the ratio of permittivity of any medium to the permittivity of vacuum.

6. Why do you use high resistant in the circuit?

To delay the discharge of charges from the capacitor (T= CR, time constant of the circuit).

7. Mention the SI unit of dielectric constant.

It is a dimension less quantity.

8. When can a dielectric be strongly polarized?

A dielectric can be strongly polarized at lower temperature with stronger applied electric field.
9. What is dielectric loss?
When a dielectric is subjected to alternating electric field, some amount of energy is lost in the form of heat radiation. This is called the
dielectric loss.

10. How do you increase the capacitance of a capacitor?

By decreasing the distance between the two plates and by increasing the area of the plates of the capacitor & introducing a medium of
higher dielectric constant between the plates.

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Fermi Energy of a Copper coil

1. Define Fermi level.

The highest energy level in the valence band occupied by electrons in a crystal at absolute zero temperature is called Fermi level.

2. What is Fermi energy?

Energy acquired by the electron at absolute zero temperature is called Fermi energy.

3. What is the importance of Fermi energy?

It helps to understand electrical & thermal properties of solids. It explains why electrons do not contribute significantly to the specific heat
of solids at room temperature T. It gives information about the velocity of electrons which participate in ordinary electrical conduction.
4. Is the Fermi energy constant for all metals?
No. Because it is dependent on the number of electrons per m3 of the material.

5. How are the energy bands in solids?

In case of solids the atoms are closely packed and hence orbits of one atom overlap with the neighboring atoms. This results in the shifting
of orbits and hence we observe the orbits having same energy combined to form a band of energy level.

6. Where do you find the Fermi level in a pure semiconductor?

Exactly mid way between the conduction and valence band ( in the middle of energy gap).

7. What are fermions?

These are the fundamental particles obeying the Fermi-Dirac statistics. Ex-electrons

8. How many electrons are there in each energy level?

According to Pauli’s exclusion principle, there are 2 electrons are there in each energy level.

9. State Pauli’s exclusion principle.

It states that no two electrons having same quantum number can occupy the same energy levels in same time.

10. Factors on which EF depends.

EF depends on the material and the temperature.

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PHOTODIODE CHARACTERISTICS

1) What is a diode?
A diode is a specialized electronic component with two electrodes called the anode and the cathode.

2) What is a photodiode?
It is a PN junction which converts light energy into electricity.

3) What is the working principle of a photodiode?

When light falls on a photodiode, due to heating effect, resistance decreases and
hence current increases.

4) How do you use a photodiode normally and why?

Photodiode is normally used in reverse bias. It is a heavily doped diode and hence
conducts excellently even in the reverse bias.

5) How photo current is related to intensity of incident light?

Photocurrent increases with increase in the intensity of incident light.
6) Why do you think the photocurrent almost remains constant after attaining certain value?
The photocurrent almost remains constant after attaining certain value because of saturation.
7) What is LED?
It is a Light Emitting diode.

8) How LED is different from a Photodiode?

LED converts electric energy into light energy. Where as photodiode converts light energy to electric energy.

9) What do you mean by characteristics of a photodiode?

It is the study of variation of photocurrent against the variation of input voltage or variation of input power of the LED.

10) Mention the applications of a Photodiode?

They are used for the detection of existence, intensity, position and color of Light.

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NEWTON’S RINGS

1. On what phenomenon of light this experiment is based?

It is based on the phenomenon of interference of light.

2.Define interference?
When two or more light waves from coherent sources superpose on each other, the resultant amplitude in the region of superposition will be
different from the amplitudes of the individual waves. This variation in the amplitude (or intensity) in the region of superposition is
known as interference.

3.What is meant by coherent sources?

The sources capable of emitting light waves of same wavelength, frequency with same phase or constant phase difference are known as coherent
sources.

4.How Newton’s rings are formed?

When a monochromatic light falls normally on Plano convex lens and glass plate set, the light reflected by the lower surface of the lens and
upper surface of the glass plate superpose to produce Interference pattern. This circular interference pattern is called Newton’s rings.
5. Can this experiment be performed using mercury vapor lamp? .....................................................................................
Since mercury lamp emits white light, which is a combination of light of different wavelengths, dispersion and interference will occur
simultaneously. As a result, the Newton's rings of all colors can be seen and also these rings of different colors overlap. Therefore, it
becomes difficult to take the readings.
6. Why is the central ring is dark?
The path difference of (𝜋/2) is introduced between the two rays as a result of the phase change of 𝜋 for ray reflects from glass plate and no
phase change for the ray reflects from plano convex lens. The central ring is dark because the two interfering rays have a path difference (𝜋/2) in
spite of the fact that the thickness is zero.

7. On what factors does the diameter of a ring depend?

It depends on the wavelength of the light and the radius of curvature of the plano-convex lens.

8. Define radius of curvature.

The radius of the imaginary sphere of which the lens forms a part.

9. The spacing between consecutive Newton's rings decreases as we move away from the centre, why?
In Newton's rings experiment the thickness of the air film varies non-uniformly and therefore we o btain a fringe system of decreasing
fringe width.

10. What are the applications of Newton’s rings?

It is used to determine wavelength of unknown light source and radius of curvature of given lens

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TORSIONAL PENDULUM

1. Define Inertia?
Every object continues to be in its state of rest or uniform motion along a straight line unless compelled by an external agency, is called inertia.

2. What is Moment of inertia?

It is the product of the rotating mass and square of its distance from the axis of rotation. Unit of moment of inertia is Kgm2.

3. Define Rigidity modulus

It is defined as, Within the elastic limit, the ratio of tangential stress to tangential strain .

4. What is Torsional pendulum?

A rigid body attached to one end of the wire whose other end is fixed to a support is capable of oscillating when the rigid body is given torque
or rotating effect. This arrangement is called a torsional pendulum

5. Define torque.
A force F acting at a distance r from the axis of a body has a rotational effect on the body. This rotational effect of a force is called moment
of the force or torque.

6. What are torsional oscillations?

When the body is let free, then because of the elasticity of the material of the wire, it undergoes regular to and fro turning motion around the
wire as its axis. Such type of oscillations are called torsional oscillations.

7. What is the type of oscillation?

This is of simple harmonic oscillation type.

8. On what factors does the time period?

It depends upon I) moment of inertia of the body II) rigidity of wire i.e., length, radius and material of the wire.

9. Difference between simple pendulum and torsional pendulum?

In a simple pendulum the Simple harmonic motion is due to the restoring force which is the component of the weight of the bob. In a torsional
pendulum the Simple harmonic motion is due to the restoring couple arising out of torsion and shearing strain

10. Mention the applications of Torsional Pendulum.

The freely decaying oscillation of Torsion pendulum in medium(like polymers),helps to determine their characteristic properties.

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