1Both are waves — but two very different sizes
Light's wave is teeny. Sound's wave is huge.
Light and sound both travel as waves. The big secret is how wide one wiggle is — its width is the whole story. Watch how far apart the wiggles sit:
Light: a tiny wave
The wiggles are packed super close. A light wave is about a hundred times thinner than a human hair.
Sound: a huge wave
The wiggles are spread way out. A low note's wave can be wider than a whole doorway.
2What a wave does at a gap
Two ways to squeeze through a doorway
Send each wave through the same gap and they behave nothing alike. Here are the two moves, side by side:
The laser-beam squeeze
A tiny wave shoots straight through and leaves a sharp shadow on each side.
The fan-out squeeze
A big wave fans out from the gap and curls into the space behind the wall.
3Your turn — stretch the wave
One doorway. You pick the wave's width.
Here's a real wall with a doorway. Drag the slider to stretch one wiggle from light-thin to sound-wide, and watch how the wave comes out the other side.
4Now hide in the corner
Which wave reaches you?
Now there's a kid hiding in the corner, right behind the wall — out of the straight path. Before you test it, make your call.
Guess before you find out
You shrink the wave smaller and smaller. Which wave still curls around the wall into the corner where you're hiding?