An assumption regarding the behavior of light waves, originally proposed by C. Huygens in the seventeenth century to explain the fact that light travels in straight lines and casts sharp shadows. Large-scale waves, such as sound waves or water waves, bend appreciably into the shadow. The special behavior of light may be explained by Huygens' principle, which states that “each point on a wavefront may be regarded as a source of secondary waves, and the position of the wavefront at a later time is determined by the envelope of these secondary waves at that time.” Thus a wave WW originating at S is shown in the illustration at the instant it passes through an aperture. If a large number of circular secondary waves, originating at various points on WW, are drawn with the radius r representing the distance the wave would travel in time t, the envelope of these secondary waves is the heavily drawn circular arc W′W′. This represents the wave after t. If, as Huygens' principle requires, the disturbance is confined to the envelope, it will be 0 outside the limits indicated by points W′.
Huygens' principle: the construction for a spherical wave.
Careful observation shows that there is a small amount of light beyond these points, decreasing rapidly with distance into the geometrical shadow. This is called diffraction. See also Diffraction.
