I’ve asked my physics teacher and looked it up a thousand times but i still dont understand it. What i understood from my physics teacher was that atoms are really far apart so some of the wave just “misses” them and goes right through but then wouldn’t light do the same thing?
I understand that x-rays and stuff are higher energy and can pass through materials for that reason but I don’t get why radio waves can do it and why light can’t.
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The thing that determines this behavior is part of the quantum world. Materials can only absorb light at certain frequencies that correspond to differences in energy between possible electron shells. It’s a bit technical, and not really eli5 territory to explain why (at least I don’t think I could do it justice). If the material you’re shooting the light or radio at doesn’t absorb at a given frequency, then you’ll either have the light pass through, reflect back, or refract (bend) as is goes through.
Edit: or scatter, which is like reflection but with more steps
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