This section is committed to entirely allow
you to converse and discuss the various doubts you have about light as well as to showcase
some of the team's viewpoints regarding certain contraversial issues about light. You can
post your questions in the messaging forum and further replies maybe posted there as well.
Firstly, let us answer the following two questions ;
1. Is light a wave or a particle?
2. How impacting is light on the
society?
Is light a particle or wave?
This same question has been raised in the late
1600s, by famous physicist Isaac Newton, and well-known mathematician and physicist
Christian Huygens. Newton thought that light was both particles and waves, as he
did not want to rule either one out. While, Huygens did not believe in the
particle theory, he has very strong strong evidence for believing that light travelled in
the form of waves. Although he had strong evidence, but it was not until 1801 that an
important experiment that gave backing to the wave theory.
What were the reasons for Newton
thinking that light was both wave and particle? Firstly, the particle theory
fitted most of the known phenomena and facts, that light is composed of mainly photons.
Secondly, he believed that light was also wave as it also obeys the basic properties of a
longitudinal wave.
What were the reasons for Newton
thinking that light travelled in the form of waes? Firstly, he thought that as
light moves so quickly, it must be made up of waves rather than particles. Secondly, he
thought that light rays do not crash into each other when they meet because light are
waves, and waves can cross each other. He also suggested that that light waves were
carried by an invisible substance that existed in air and space, called "ether".
"Huygen's Principle" shpws that each point on a wave produces its own wavelets
which in turn creates a wave-front. This explain how refractions works.
Its all up the individual to manipulate and
debate... everything out there is for discussion.
