@vt.physics: How a Sieve Turns Fairy Lights into Stars ✨ Optical diffraction occurs because light behaves as a wave and spreads when it encounters sharp boundaries. The thin wires in a sieve introduce abrupt changes to the wavefront, so the light is redistributed into specific angular directions rather than travelling straight through. A vertical edge produces a horizontal diffraction spread, while a horizontal edge produces a vertical spread. Since the sieve contains two perpendicular sets of edges, their diffraction fields combine to create the characteristic four point star around each light. In essence, the star shape is simply the diffraction signature of the sieve geometry. #science #physics #diffraction #explained

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Sunday 28 December 2025 08:00:00 GMT