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The aperture or the diffracting object effectively then becomes the second source of the wave. The wave then bends around the corners of an obstacle, through apertures into the regions of the shadow of the obstacle. Note: Diffraction refers to the phenomenon of a wave encountering an opening or obstacle. Therefore to encounter diffraction on electromagnetic waves in our normal lives, we would require microwaves and not visible light since microwaves have a much higher wavelength and the longer wavelengths of about $3\ cm$ can be seen in low light conditions. This does not happen in electromagnetic waves.įor observing the phenomenon of diffraction, the order of the magnitude of the wavelength of the waves should be comparable to that of the slit width. The motion of vibration in longitudinal waves is in the same direction as the wave propagation. Sound travels by longitudinal waves which radiate outward in concentric circles. Constructive interference occurs when d sin m d s i n m form 0, ± 1, ☒., where d is the distance between the slits, is the. The general wavelength of visible light ranges from $7000 \times m$. A diffraction grating consists of a large number of evenly spaced parallel slits that produce an interference pattern similar to but sharper than that of a double slit. Sound travels by longitudinal waves, or waves in which the movement of vibration is in the same direction as the wave itself. The wavelength of sound generally ranges from $17\ m$ to $15\ mm$. The reason for the differencethat is, why sound diffraction is more pronounced than light diffractionis that sound waves are much, much larger than light waves. The frequency of human audible sound waves lies from $20\ Hz$ to $20\ kHz$. The review of physical laws ruling the bending of sound waves at the edge of the screen allows the effective selection. The wavelength of sound waves is much higher than that of visible light. The diffraction phenomenon is described by the HuygensFresnel principle. This condition is satisfied only for sound waves in everyday life. For diffraction to occur, the slit width should be comparable to the wavelength of the light or sound waves. Hint: The reason for the diffraction of sound waves being more evident in daily experience than light waves is that sound waves have much higher wavelength compared to the visible light waves.