Light

EM

Modern
Physics
 

Sir Isaac Christian

Newton Huygens
 Wave theory of Light

Light does spread out
 Corpuscular Theory of
Light

Light travels only in
straight lines
shadow
Cospuscular Theory of
Light


Vs.

Wave theory of Light

Thomas Young (1773-
1829) 
1801
Diffraction and interference
of light
Wave theory
James Clerk Maxwell – 1860
Max Planck (1854-1947)

1900
Blackbody radiation
Energy comes
discrete unit
quanta
Albert Einstein (1879-
1955)

1905
Light is composed of
bundles of wave energy
Photons
Planck’s finding
Arthur Compton (1892-
1962)

1923
Photons of X-rays
Decreased in energy when
colliding with electrons
Behaves like a particle
Louis-Victor de Broglie
(1892-1987)

Extended the possibility
further by proposing that
matter can have wave
properties
Dual nature

 Illuminated object

An object that can be seen
because it reflects light
waves
Is the moon illuminated
object?

Yes,
because it
reflect
sunlight to
its surface
 What about the object
that sends out
 their own
light?
 Luminous object

Send out their own light
Energy of its oscillating
particles
What about those object
that givestheir own
light and emitted by hot
objects?
 Incandescent light

Light emitted by hot
objects such as sun and
other stars.

Low temperature produces
 ( reddish
longer wavelength
color)

High temperature produces

shorter wavelength ( bluish
color)
 Fluorescent light

Cooler, uses less electricity than
incandescent light
Phosphor- material that coats the
inside part fluorescent lamp, also it
absorbs, UV energy and glows,
producing visible light.
 Phosphors

Fluorescent material use in
watch dials that glow in the
dark.
They are periodically
recharged by exposure to light
Phosphorescence
 Electric discharge
through ionized gases

Ionized gases
Some gases can be made to
produce light by passing an
electric current through them
Pure neon – red light

Argon and Mercury vapor-
greenish blue light
Helium – golden yellow
light
Krypton – pale violet light
 Bioluminescence

Living organism like
fireflies
Occur because of chemical
reaction among protein and
oxygen in organism

 Shadow

Light cannot reach
  Opaque
object - sharp
Light source
is small

Not bend
Light source is big



 Eclipse

Natural phenomenon that
exhibits rectilinear propagation
of light

Solar Eclipse
Lunar Eclipse

 
Speed of light
Galileo Galilei (1667)

Olaus Roemer (1676)

Christian Huygens

2.3 X 10^8 m/s
 Armand Hippolyte
Louis Fizeau (1849)

Time for the wheel to rotate through the angle
between the successive gaps is equal to the time for
the light to make the round trip to the distant
mirror and back

3.13 x 10^8 m/s

Jean Bernard Leon
Foucault
 2.99796
m/s
x 10^8
Albert Michaelson
2.997 996+_
 0.00004 x 10^8
m/s
 International Committee on
Weights and Measurements
(1983)

299 792 458 m/s
3.00 x 10^8 m/s