Eli5 Why light waves require line of sight while sound waves do not?
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Sound travels through a medium. Its pushing molecules around. Those molecules push other molecules, which push other molecules…
You get the idea.
Since solid surfaces tend to push back, you can get sound bouncing off to other directions.
Sound also usually radiates from a source, like a drop of water in a pond. Actually thats a great way to see how vibrations travel. It will create smaller waves when it hits some object, and propagate from there.
Light (and electromagnetic energy) is… different. For our purpose, we say it acts like a particle most of the time, for everyday experience. It doesn’t (that we know of) push other _somethings_ around. A photon is created, travels in one direction at the speed of light. It may then absorbed into an electron and then reemitted at a different wavelengh (which is how we get colors).
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