What's the reason behind the bending of light around the edges of the body in diffraction phenomenon?

Mehlqv

Mehlqv

Answered question

2022-08-10

What's the reason behind the bending of light around the edges of the body in diffraction phenomenon?

Answer & Explanation

Gaige Burton

Gaige Burton

Beginner2022-08-11Added 16 answers

No, the effect of gravity is orders of magnitude smaller than what you see.
Consider light as a wave. It's like any other wave, like a wave in water. It has a wave front which, for all practical purposes is like a line of little floats, all bobbing up and down in unison.
Each little float sends out circular waves in all directions, but the waves of neighboring floats interfere and cancel each other out, so that the only part of the wave that isn't canceled out is the part going straight ahead.
But, if there's an edge of a wall in the way, so the waves on one side are blocked, then the waves from the floats near the wall are not cancelled out on the side toward the wall, so they can "bend around".
So to understand how waves behave, think in terms of self-interference.

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