To explain the fact that light travels in a straight line assuming light as a wave physicist said that it has small wavelength. So how does the small wavelength explains the property?
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5$\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of If light rays obey to the wave equation, why can they be thought as straight lines?. If the answers there don't address your question, or you don't understand them, please edit your post to explain why so we can help you better. $\endgroup$– Emilio PisantyCommented Feb 2, 2016 at 12:07
1 Answer
It does not.
Neglecting huge gravitational fields (e.g. black holes), which distort even the traveling path of light, a light wave propagates in a straight line.
The "wave" part is expressed in the electric and magnetic field of the light beam/pulse, but these two fields oscillate in the plane transverse to the propagation direction.
Lastly, the wavelength only describes how fast these fields oscillate or - using another terminology - how big the period of the field wave is or - using yet another terminology - how far the light has traveled until the field waves begin to repeat themselves.