Diffraction vs Refraction:Comparative Analysis

The behavior of waves traveling from one medium to another medium is different. The difference in the behavior of waves gives the phenomena of diffraction and refraction.

Diffraction and refraction are the processes of change in the direction of the wave. Both the light and sound waves can undergo diffraction and refraction. In this post, we will learn the differences between diffraction vs refraction in both light and sound and learn various facts involved in diffraction vs refraction.

Diffraction vs refraction of light

The comparative analysis of diffraction vs refraction briefly summarizes the nature of propagation light waves in the various mediums. In this section, let us discuss the comparison of diffraction vs refraction of light.

Diffraction vs refraction sound

The change in the direction of the sound wave can produce diffraction as well as refraction depending on the nature of the medium and material. The differences between acoustic diffraction vs refraction is listed as follows:

Is refraction same as diffraction?

Diffraction and refraction are very important properties of the wave where bending or spreading of the wave occurs. These are natural phenomena that can be observed everywhere around us. Though both properties encounter bending phenomena, they differ from one another.

Refraction is a bulk phenomenon; it occurs when the wave hits a surface and travels through the bulk of another medium of different densities, and the bending of the wave takes place. While the diffraction is an edge phenomenon, where the wave hits the corner of the obstacle, which is placed in the path of the propagation of the wave, and then bending or spreading of the wave takes place.

Though both diffraction and refraction are the characteristics of the wave, their result is also different as the refraction produces the visual image, whereas the diffraction produces the fringes or geometrical shadows.

Is it a rainbow diffraction or refraction?

Rainbow is a naturally occurring process in the sky when the light ray from the sun passes through the water droplet.

Even though the rainbow looks like the cause of diffraction as the water droplet acts as a grating because water is a transparent medium, diffraction does not play any role in the rainbow formation. As the light ray travels from the water droplet to air, there is a change in the light ray’s propagation medium. The refractive indices of air and water are different. As the water medium is denser than the air medium, there will be refraction, not diffraction.

The cause of the rainbow

• The cause of the rainbow is due to the refraction, and reflection also plays a part in causing the rainbow. When the light ray enters the water droplet, the ray gets reflected inside the droplet more than once; this is called total internal reflection, which causes the rainbow to look shiner. When the ray leaves the droplet, the rays are double refracted, and they disperse into a cone of seven constituent colors of various wavelengths.

Is a prism refraction or diffraction?

The prism has the ability to disperse the white light into its constituent colors when white light is passed through the prism. The dispersion of white light in the prism is due to refraction, not diffraction.

When the white light ray is encountered on the prism, the bending of the light ray takes place at the surface of the prism. Since prism is made up of a particular type of glass-like material, the refractive index of the prism is more than the air; the splitting up of colors takes place inside the prism of a different wavelength.

The spectrum we obtained from the prism of different frequencies is not the diffraction pattern. Prism is refraction, not diffraction.

Each spectral line emerges out of the prism, and the rainbow has a different wavelength in the order of red, yellow, green, blue-green, blue, and violet. Red has the longest wavelength, and violet has the minimum wavelength.

Some interesting facts of diffraction and refraction

• The refraction is the property of the wave that obeys “Snell’s law”.
• Not only light and sound waves, electromagnetic can also undergo refraction and diffraction.
• The amplitude of the wave decreases after the refraction and diffraction, as there is a change in the direction of the wave; hence during the process, some amount of energy may get lost; as a result, there will be an amplitude decrease.
• Water can undergo both refraction and diffraction as it is a transparent medium. For example, if we place a straw in a glass of water, it looks like the straw is cut off; in this case, water acts as a refractive medium. While if a light wave hits the island and bends, it produces the shadow of the island due to diffraction.
• On the earth, we can able to visualize maximum of ¾th of the rainbow cone; a pilot can visualize the complete rainbow.

Also Read:

• Telescope diffraction limit formula
• Diffraction vs dispersion
• Reflection vs diffraction
• Lens diffraction limits
• Microscope diffraction limit formula
• Diffraction in telescopes