[Physics] Can someone explain, in a simple way, why does wavelength affect diffraction

diffractionwaves

I have already seen the following question: Why does wavelength affect diffraction?

But I still can't seem to understand the relationship. I understand that if the wavelength is the same size as the slit, the wave pattern will look like circles on the other side of the slit, which is maximum diffraction, because the slit will "function" as a point source.

But I don't understand why, if we reduce the wavelength, there's gonna be like more point sources in the same slit. What's the reason?

I hope I could make myself clear enough.

Best Answer

Forget about the "number of points". There are infinite number of points in the slit.

The explanation has to do with time. Each point of the slit corresponds to a different delay that light takes to reach a given target from that point.

For instance, if the target is sideways from the slit, some points of the slit will be closer (less delay) and some points will be further (more delay). The smaller the wavelength, the more oscillations that delay will contain. More oscillations mean more cancelling between them, because averaging over many oscillations adds up to zero. To summarize this, the smaller the wavelength, the more cancelling out of waves, thus the less light. This explains why a smaller wavelength tends to have less diffraction to the side.

The more you take a target to the side of the slit, the more delay you will add, thus less and less light.