Why can sound waves bend around corners but light waves can't?

There are two mechanisms that cause light to bend around corners. wave diffraction. Light waves indeed bend around corners because of diffraction, ... read more

Light can, and does actually. But the way waves bend depends on their wavelength Visible lightwaves have a wavelength of the order of several hundred nano meters (say [math]400 10^{-9}[/math] meters). read more

All waves exhibit similar properties, and both light and sound are types of waves (although, technically, light is a transverse wave and sound is a longitudinal wave). One feature of waves, known as diffraction, is that they can bend around corners or obstacles. The degree of diffraction increases with increasing wavelength. read more

Waves can bend around corners because of an effect called diffraction. The amount that a wave will bend around a corner because of diffraction is about the same as its wavelength. So it is much easier to see the bending of the sound waves, because it is about a million times bigger than the bending of the light waves. read more

All waves exhibit similar properties, and both light and sound are types of waves (although, technically, light is a transverse wave and sound is a longitudinal wave). One feature of waves, known as diffraction, is that they can bend around corners or obstacles. read more

Good question because if light is a wave and water waves and sound waves bend around corners and basically fill every inch of space they are allowed to and actually seem to turn around and go back the way they came. read more