Interferometer

An interferometer is a science tool that helps us measure tiny things that are hard to see with our eyes. Imagine you have a toy car and you want to know how fast it can go. Sometimes, it's too fast for you to see with your eyes. In this case, you can use an interferometer to help you measure the car's speed in a different way.

An interferometer works by using something called interference, which is when two or more things come together and interact with each other. Interferometers split light into two separate beams and then bring them back together again.

When the two beams come back together, they create a pattern of light and dark lines called an interference pattern. This pattern can tell us things like how fast something is moving, how far away something is, or how big something is. Scientists use interferometers to study things like stars, planets, and even tiny particles that make up matter.

In a way, an interferometer is like a really precise ruler that can measure things that are too small or too far away for us to see with our eyes. Without interferometers, we wouldn't be able to know many of the things that we know about the universe around us.