The first moment of light in the universe, occurred between 240,000 to 300,000 years after the Big Bang, this was known as the "Era of Recombination". But it took centuries, after the creation of man, for us to have an understanding of light.
So, what is Light?
Light can either be explained as a particle, wave or an electro-magnetic radiation. Literally, light is a separate bundle of these three combined. The details of these are very complex, but we can make some pretty good deductions about light. In my view
Light is a form of energy that travels in waves
Contributions to the Theory of Light
Many leading scientists and Physicist, have contributed to the development of a theory of light, some of which are highlighted here
Isaac Newton
English mathematician Isaac newton proposed the particle Theory of Light to explain the bending of light upon reflection from a mirror or upon refraction when passing from air (less dense region) to water (more dense region)
Christian Huygen
Huygen showed that a wave Theory of light could explain the law of reflection and refraction
James Clerkmaxwell and Gustav Ludwig Hertz
In the late 1800s, Clerkmaxwell and Hertz, predicted and verified the existence of electromagnetic wave traveling at the speed of light
Therefore light can either be described as a
- A particle [Isaac Newton]
- A wave [Christian Huygen]
- An Electromagnetic radiation [Clerkmaxwell and Hertz]
Claus Roemer
In the late 1600s, Roema estimated the velocity of light to be 2.1 × 10⁸ m/s, by observing differences in the period of the moon of Jupiter with earth. Tho his estimates where inaccurate, his theories were sound
Armand Fizeau
In 1849, French physicist Armand Fizeau gave an accurate approximation of the speed of light to be 3.15 × 10⁸ m/s with his toothed wheel experiment
Keynotes
- Light is a form of energy that travels in waves
- Light can be explained in a particle, wave and Electromagnetic radiation theory
- Isaac Newton proposed the corpuscular theory of light
- Christian Huygen proposed the wave Theory of Light
- James Clerkmaxwell proposed the electromagnetic wave Theory of light
- They're spectrums of lights depending on its wavelength
- Gamma rays have the shortest wavelength
- Radio waves have the longest wavelength
- Claus Roemer estimate for the speed of light was 2.1×10⁸m/s
- Armand Fizeau estimate for the speed of light was 3.15×10⁸
Footnotes
Tags:
Physics