In our everyday environment, diffraction is much more evident for sound waves than for light waves. Why is this so?

Question

Logan Day

Physics

11 October, 09:45

In our everyday environment, diffraction is much more evident for sound waves than for light waves. Why is this so?

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Answers (1)

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Xzavier Lozano · Answer 1

Answer with explanation:

We know that diffraction of waves is the phenomenon of bending of waves around a corner or an obstacle which it may encounter in it's path.

Any wave diffracts around an object only if the size of the object is comparable to the wavelength of the wave.

As we know that the wavelength of sound waves are generally in the order of meters (17 mm-17 m) which is highly large than the wavelength of light waves whose wavelength is in the order of manometers (500 manometers) thus the diffraction effects of sound waves are much more evident as compared to the diffraction produced by light waves as the objects that we encounter in our daily lives have sizes comparable to the wavelength of sound thus the effects are much more evident.