Wave or particle: What is the true nature of light?

Light is the first and last thing that human beings perceive when they are born and when they die. It is what reflects on surfaces and creates the colors we can see. Without light, life would not be possible. For many years Scientists consider light to be a wave because of its ability to travel through the universe, but it is also a particle.

For example, starlight is produced mainly by nuclear fusion reactions in their cores. However, we can only observe it with the naked eye because it travels thousands of light years before reaching Earth.

The nature of light has always been a focus of study for modern researchers; It is not surprising that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and other scientists studied this issue for a long time.

Before the advent of modern physics, scientists debated whether light could have particle properties. Only in 1905 did Albert Einstein propose that light has both wave and particle properties.

“Whether light is a particle or a wave is an age-old question. If you could describe an object as a point in space, you would describe it as a particle. A wave is an object that you don’t describe as a point in space, and you need to give the frequency of oscillation and the distance between the maximum and minimum,” Imperial College London physicist Riccardo Sapienza told the website. Live Science.

This argument contributed significantly to the formulation of quantum physics concepts. In 1924, French physicist Louis de Broglie introduced the basic idea of ​​wave-particle duality, which showed that particles such as electrons and photons also exhibit wave properties.

So what is the true nature of light? The most direct answer is this: Light can behave like a wave or a particle, depending on the conditions. To better understand how this phenomenon occurs, we collected information from physicists, experts, and scientific articles. Check this out!

The science of light: wave and particle

In the 17th century, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens proposed that light had wave properties; This was an argument that challenged the prevailing thinking of the time. So much so that Isaac Newton, who lived in almost the same period as Huygens, claimed that light consisted only of particles.

English physicist Thomas Young in 1801 It provided the first evidence that light actually has wave properties. In the experiment known as the ‘double slit’, Young passed light through two nearby apertures and observed an interference pattern; This would only be possible if light actually behaved like a wave.

Sapienza explains that if the light in the double-slit experiment consisted only of particles, the lights would create only two beams on the wall through the slits. However, it propagates and creates an interference pattern, and this behavior is characteristic of a wave.

As mentioned earlier, Einstein proposed that light has both particle and wave properties. In 1905, he described the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which light when directed onto a metal causes the emission of electrons.

The German scientist argued that light consists of particles called photons and that each photon carries energy proportional to its frequency. As long as the frequency is high enough this is enough to release electrons from the metal. In this case, light behaves according to the properties of the particles.

From this point on, many scientists and experts began to study the subject to better understand wave-particle duality. However, there is no definitive answer to why light sometimes behaves as a wave and sometimes as a particle.

Light is simultaneously a wave and a particle, but depending on the conditions under which it is observed, one of these properties becomes more pronounced.

“If light is a particle, then why does it refract as it travels from one medium to another? And if light is a wave, why does it displace electrons? But all the behavior of light can be explained by the combination of two models: light behaves like particles and light behaves like waves,” explains the encyclopedia Britannica.

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