Diffraction patterns in the shadows of disks and obstacles.

We compare the Fresnel diffraction pattern of a thin circular disk with that of a square obstacle, specifically evaluating the on-axis field strength. Photographs of the diffraction patterns reveal some curious features for the square obstacle. Second, the precise electric and magnetic fields behind a conducting circular disk are evaluated without invoking the Fresnel approximation and contrasted with the rigorous electromagnetic result for a metal sphere. The calculations show that the two cases differ only slightly in the Fresnel region.