Figure 30-25 Wave size and resolution. Wave reflection depends on the relative size of waves and objects. For small objects, small waves are needed for good reflection and resolution. A, The object size is large relative to the wave size, which results in good spatial resolution. B, The object size is small relative to the wavelength, which leads to poor resolution of the objects. This principle applies to light waves also. Hence, electron microscopes can resolve smaller objects than light microscopes can because the wavelengths used are smaller. Imagine running an unsharpened pencil over a fine (1-mm grid) or coarse (1-cm grid) screen. The pencil sticks in the larger holes while passing over the smaller ones. Sharpening the pencil to a point improves the resolution.