Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A radio antenna stands on the edge of a cliff, at a height above a calm sea, and points out to sea, as in the figure. It listens at to a distant radio source that is rising above the sea horizon. Waves reach the antenna along two paths: straight from the source, and after reflection from the sea surface. Because the source is so far away, the two rays arrive parallel to each other, at the elevation angle of the source above the horizon. The sea reflects like a flat mirror, and the reflection reverses the phase of the wave. Ignore the curvature of the Earth. The speed of radio waves is .
The source lies near the celestial equator and the antenna is near the Earth's equator, so the source rises straight up at a steady per minute. The signal grows and fades as it rises, like the fringes of a double slit. This set-up, a single antenna and its image in the sea, once let radio astronomers pin down the positions of radio sources.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Plan. Replace the sea by the image of the antenna. Then this is a double slit with the two sources apart, one above the other, plus a phase reversal on the reflected path.
Step 1. Path difference (a). The antenna and its image are apart, on one vertical line. Parallel rays at elevation reach them with a path difference .
Step 2. Conditions. The wavelength is . With the phase reversal, maxima need and minima need . On the horizon itself the signal is zero.
Step 3. First maximum and next minimum (b, c). , so . The next minimum has , so .
Step 4. Time (d). The second maximum has , so . At per minute, the source takes .
Step 5. Counting (e). At , . The maxima are at , so there are .
Step 6. Both together (f). At , . Both are at a maximum where is an odd number of half-wavelengths of each: . So and .
Answer: (a) . (b) . (c) . (d) . (e) . (f) .
Check. A taller cliff gives closer maxima: the "slits" are farther apart. The spacing, about in angle, is the same as the fringe spacing of a double slit with separation .
Watch out. Without the phase reversal you would expect a maximum on the horizon. In fact the signal there is zero: the two waves travel the same path and cancel. Forgetting this puts every maximum at the place of a minimum.
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