The Wave Theory of Light

The Wave Theory of light
So now that we are all aware that newton proposed a theory about light, which is also
known as the particle theory of light. We will now move on to another person who
proposed another theory also known as the wave theory of light.
 In 1678, the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens started to ponder on the wave nature
of light.
Since existing na yung theory ni newton na light is made of tiny particles. Naisip niya na
what if light is not composed of tiny particles but instead it is made up of waves that is
similar to the waves that we see in the water.
Years passed by he then proposed the wave theory of light. Particularly in 1690.
 In 1690, Christiann Huygens, a Dutch astronomer and physicist, proposed the wave
theory of light.
So one question that we could be having is when it comes to water particles or waves in
water. The water particles are doing the vibrations right? Pag ginalaw natin yung still
water, the disturbance is carried away by the vibrating molecules. BUT in light what
particles are vibrating? Kasi Huygens is claiming light to be a wave.
So back then, Huygens and other people assumed that there are particles everywhere in the
universe and this medium which consists of these particles is called Aether medium. Which
is a popular notion back then. They assumed that this medium was everywhere, sort of like
air, you can’t see it and you can’t feel it but it’s there. And Huygens said that light is
vibrations, light waves are carried by the vibrations of the Aether medium.
If you want to visualize something like that, we have provided photos. (proceed to show the
animation)
You can see a light bulb, and those little dots around the bulb are particles of the aether
medium that is present everywhere in the universe and this is how Huygens imagined it.
Basically, light is ripples to the aether medium. If you are all wondering what is ripples, it
is also called as wavefronts in physics. These ripples move in sync with each other.
Now if we zoom in to those ripples, we can see exactly how these particles move. We can see
a flat surface consisting of a plane wavefronts, we call it “plane wavefronts”. According to
Huygens, these wavefronts move in longitudinal wave. We can actually classify two
different waves which is transverse wave and longitudinal wave. For better understanding,
please refer to the animations on the presentation nalang. Sa transverse wave, may
makikita na up and down movement and the wave itself is moving from left to right or vice
versa. One example of this is yung ocean waves. For the longitudinal wave naman,
horizontal yung pag move which is yung pag pull and push, then the wave itself is moving
horizontal din. One example of this is the sound waves. His idea about light waves was
envisioned by comparing the behavior of light not with water waves but with sound waves.
Kaya para sa kaniya longitudinal yung movement ng wave.
That is why the wave theory of light:

 states that light is a longitudinal wave transmitted through an aether–mystical substance
that exists and fills all the spaces in the universe.
Like what I’ve said earlier:

 He believed that the aether moved in the same direction as light, and they are moving in
sync with each other which forms a wave which carried the light waves and he used this
theory to explain many properties of light.
However, the wave theory of light did not receive immediate acceptance until in 1801, when
Thomas Young performed the double-slit experiment confirming the wave theory of light.
Louis de Broglie’s Hypothesis - (Dual Nature of Light)
So in the early 20th Century, physicist were confused, because the light which we thought
was a wave started to behave in certain experiments as if it were a particle. There are two
common experiments which is the photoelectric effect which showed that light behaves
more like a particle, and the second one is the double split experiment which shows that
light behaves like a wave.
Finally, physicist resigned to the fact that light can seemingly have particle like properties
and wave light properties depending on the experiment being conducted.
That is when de Broglie’s wrote a paper, then he said, "What about the electron?" “if light,
which we thought was a wave, "can act like a particle, "maybe electrons, which we thought
were particles," can act like a wave." In other words, maybe they have a wavelength
associated with them.
He was trying to synthesize these ideas into one framework in which you could describe
both quanta of light, for example, particles of light, and particles, which we thought were
just particles, but maybe they can behave like waves as well.
So maybe, he was saying, everything in the universe can behave like a particle or a wave,
depending on the experiment that's being conducted. And he set out to figure out what
would this wavelength be, and he figured it out which is called the "de Broe-lee"
wavelength. He only postulated this and he didn’t really prove this.
Then he further theorized that the wavelength of a particle is related to Planck’s constant
and inversely proportional to its momentum. Although he did not have the ability to test
this hypothesis at the time, he derived an equation to prove it using the Planck equation.
He said that the wavelength is associated with things that we thought were matter, so
sometimes these were called matter waves, but the wavelength of, say, an electron, is gonna
be equal to Planck's constant, divided by the momentum of that electron. And so, why did
he say this? Why did he pick Planck's constant?
If you're not familiar with Planck's constant, it is like the name suggests, just a constant,
and it's always the same value, it's 6.626 times 10, to the negative 34th joule seconds. This
was a constant discovered in other experiments, like the photoelectric effect, and the
original blackbody experiments that Planck was dealing with. It's called Planck's constant,
it shows up all around modern physics and quantum mechanics.
To summarize things up, waves carry energy. The amount of energy they carry is related to
their frequency and their amplitude. The higher the frequency, the more energy, and the
higher the amplitude, the more energy. Matter (light or electron, basically particles) can
have wave-like properties such as diffraction and interference. Proved using Einstein’s
energy formula and Planck’s formula

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The Wave Theory of light

That is why the wave theory of light:

Like what I’ve said earlier:

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