moiré pattern, in physics, the geometrical design that results when a set of straight or curved lines is superposed onto another set; the name derives from a French word for “watered.” The effect may be seen by looking through the folds of a nylon curtain of small mesh, or two sheets of graph paper twisted 20 or 30 degrees with respect to one another. If a grating design made of parallel black and white bars of equal width is superposed on an identical grating, moiré fringes will appear as the crossing angle is varied from about one second of arc to about 45°. The pattern will consist of equispaced parallel fringes. If two gratings of slightly different spacing are superposed, “beat” fringes will appear, which shift positions much faster than does the displacement of one grating with respect to the other. This principle is used to measure small displacements in mechanical devices (e.g., comparator). Moiré patterns are useful in representing fluid flow and potential fields. Problems in optics, wave motion, stress analysis, crystallography, mathematics, and the psychology of perception may also be solved. A different kind of moiré pattern results when two families of curves of different colours are superposed: fringes of a third colour are produced.
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