What is wave diffraction?

Wave diffraction refers to the phenomenon in which waves bend around obstacles or spread out after passing through small openings. This bending occurs because waves behave as if they are made up of numerous overlapping wavelets, which can alter their direction when encountering barriers or openings that are comparable in size to their wavelength.

For instance, when water waves travel through a narrow gap in a barrier, they will diverge and create a pattern of circular waves on the other side, illustrating how they can bend and spread. Similarly, diffraction is commonly observed with light waves when they pass through a slit or around the edges of an object, leading to patterns such as fringes of light and dark.

The other options describe different wave behaviors: reflection involves waves bouncing off surfaces, transmission is about waves passing through a medium with little change, and destruction refers to attenuated waves either dissipation or interference effects. These concepts are distinct from diffraction, which specifically deals with the bending and spreading of waves.