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Light is a transverse, electromagnetic wave that can be seen by the typical human. The wave nature of light was first illustrated through experiments on diffraction and interference. Like all electromagnetic waves, light can travel through a vacuum. The transverse nature of light can be demonstrated through polarization.
Like all types of electromagnetic radiation, visible light propagates by massless elementary particles called photons that represents the quanta of electromagnetic field, and can be analyzed as both waves and particles. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics.
Examples of light include radio and infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, and X-rays. Interestingly, not all light phenomena can be explained by Maxwell’s theory. Experiments performed early in the twentieth century showed that light has corpuscular, or particle-like, properties.
14 lis 2024 · Since the mid-20th century, a more comprehensive theory of light, known as quantum electrodynamics (QED), has been regarded by physicists as complete. QED combines the ideas of classical electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and the special theory of relativity.
14 maj 2023 · Light has fascinated philosophers and scientists for thousands of years (Figure 1.12). Several theories about light began in roughly the 6th century BCE. The ancient Greeks came up with the extramission theory, in which vision works through emission of light rays from the eyes.
14 lis 2024 · A new interpretation of the emission of light by heated objects and new experimental methods that opened the atomic world for study led to a radical departure from the classical theories of Newton and Maxwell— quantum mechanics was born. Once again the question of the nature of light was reopened.
1. Light is the energy that warms you when you sit in the sun, the energy that grows the world’s plants, and the energy that powers the Earth’s wind. Light is also the stuff of rainbows, the medium by which we view the world around us, and essentially our only connection to the rest of the universe.
