system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why can't objects be seen if they are smaller than the wavelength you are using?

Is there a physical visualization that can help reinforce this? I'm not seeing the relationship between the wavelength and physical object size.

The wavelength of light is continuous, and describes the E/M vector at a point. So if we have an atom at some position X, and we shoot an infinitely thin beam of visible light (wavelength larger than atom's size), the light must travel and hit the atom at position X because the light is continuous. It's not like the lightwave just skips over position X. So the atom should interact with the visible light, somehow. If it were to reflect the visible light back to us, then why can't we see the atom?
gpt
If you want a really far but easy way to see it, try to find where a grape ( in reality a bacteria) is on a table using a toothpick (electrons), a carrot (visible light), an apple (infrared) and a watermelon (radio). 

As long a the wavelength (diameter) of the tool is smaller than the object you want to resolve, you have no problem defining where the object is and even details of the contour ( that is the toothpick).

When the wavelength of the tool is comparable you can still see that something of that approximate size is there (that is the carrot).

When the wavelength is larger, best case you may see some faint scattering that tells you there is something different about the area where the grape is (with an apple), and at a certain point it is unlikely you see anything at all (watermelon).