Q. An astronaut is looking down on earth’s surface from a space shuttle at an altitude of $400\ km$. Assuming that the astronaut’s pupil diameter is $5\ mm$ and the wavelength of visible light is $500\ nm$. The astronaut will be able to resolve linear object of the size of about

A) 0.5 $m$
B) 5 $m$
C) 50 $m$
D) 500 $m$
Explanation

(c) $\frac{x}{r} = \frac{1.22\ \lambda}{d} \Rightarrow x = \frac{1.22\ \lambda r}{d}$
$= \frac{1.22 \times 500 \times 10^{- 9} \times 400 \times 10^{3}}{5 \times 10^{- 3}} = 50\ m$

Dr. Abubacker
Reviewed by Dr. Abubacker

Physics Educator & NEET/JEE Specialist

Ph.D. in Physics with 19+ years of teaching experience.