The radius of the Ewald's sphere is much larger than the spacing between reciprocal lattice rods because the incident beam has a very short wavelength due to its high-energy electrons. Rows of reciprocal lattice rods actually intersect the Ewald's sphere as an approximate plane because identical rows of parallel reciprocal lattice rods sit directly in front and behind the single row shown. Figure 3 shows a cross sectional view of a single row of reciprocal lattice rods filling of the diffraction conditions. The reciprocal lattice rods in Figure 3 show the end on view of these planes, which are perpendicular to the computer screen in the figure.