For example, if two rooms are connected by an open doorway and a sound is produced in a remote corner of one of them, a person in the other room will hear the sound as if it originated at the doorway. As far as the second room is concerned, the vibrating air in the doorway is the source of the sound. The same is true of light passing the edge of an obstacle, but this is not as easily observed because of the short wavelength of visible light.
The interference of light from variously distant areas of the moving wave front accounts for the maxima and minima observable as diffraction fringes. See, for example, the double-slit experiment.
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