LIGHT

PowerPoint presentation by:

Andyl Joy M. Negro
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PART 11

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EVIDENCE
FOR WAVE

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 The topic of light become a topic of

debate toward the end of the 1600s as
Isaac Newton published the Particle
Theory of the light. He believed that the
straight-line travel of light could be better
explained as small particles of matter
that travelled at the great speed from a
light source.
He reasoned that particle should follow a
straight line according to law of motion
while waves bend.
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 After the same time, Christian

Huygens concluded that light is
not a stream of particles but
rather a longitudinal waves that
move through the ether.
Huygens's Wave Theory
proposed that waves created by
the light source.
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Huygens's Wave Theory

-The wave, according to the theory, did not
simply move through the ether. Each point on
the wave front was pictured as impacting an
ether molecules.
-Each ether molecule produce a small wavelet
as a result. Each wavelet was a small
hemisphere that spread outward in the direction
of the movement. A line connecting all the
leading surfaces of the wavelets described a
new wave front, which now impacted other
ether molecules, which made new wavelet,
which make a new wave front and so.
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 Even though both theory were

advocated during 1700s, majority
favored on Newton.
By the beginning of 1800s, new
evidence was found favored to
wave theory, an evidence that no
other theory could explain but
only the wave theory.
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Diffraction
Newton argue that light is not a
wave because if light is a wave,
then it must bend on an obstacle,
like window. So, Newton argued
for a particle nature of light would
move straight past an obstacle
and makes a sharp shadow.
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Diffraction
In 1665, Francesco Grimaldi reported that there
was not a sharp edge to a shadow moving
through a small pinhole and the light formed a
larger spot than would be expected by light
travelling in a straight line. He made the first
description of DIFFRACTION, THE BENDING
OF LIGHT AROUND THE EDGE OF AN
OPAQUE OBJECT.

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Diffraction

Water wave

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Huygenss wave theory explains

diffraction of light

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Interference
In 1801, Thomas Young published evidence of a behavior of light that
could only be explained in terms of wave model of light

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Interference
The pattern of bright lines and dark zones
is called interference pattern.
After 15 years later, A.J. Fresnel
demonstrated mathematically that
diffraction as well as other behaviors of
light could be fully explained by the wave
theory.
Red(wavelength): 4 x 10-7m
Violet (wavelength): 8 x 10-7 m
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EVIDENCE
FOR PARTICLE

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 1850, J.L. Foucault was able to

prove that light travels much
slower in transparent materials
than it does in air. This was in
complete agreement with the
wave theory and completely
opposite of the particle theory
explaination
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 By the end of 1800s, Maxwell theoretical

concept of electric and magnetic fields
changed the concept of the light from
mechanical waves to waves of changing
electric and magnetic field.
Further evidence removed the necessity
for ether, the material supposedly
needed for the waves to move through.
Light was now seen as
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE that could
move through empty space.
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Photoelectric Effect
Usually, the energy of absorbed light result in
temperature increase such as the warmth that
you fell from absorbed sunlight.
Sometimes, however, the energy from absorbed
light result in other effect. In some materials the
materials that energy is acquired by electrons,
and some of the electrons acquire sufficient
energy to jump out of the material. The
movement of electrons as a result of energy
acquired fro light is known as PHOTOELECTRIC
EFFECT.
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light

e-

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Fact!
Low-intensity light caused fewer electrons
to be ejected, and high-intensity light
caused many to be ejected.
All electrons ejected from low- or highintensity light ideally had the same kinetic
energy!. Surprisingly, the KE of the ejected
electrons was found to be independent of
the light intensity.

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REFLECTION
AND
REFRACTION
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Think about this

When a light wave strikes a
smooth interface between two
optical materials such as air and
glass or water and glass, the
wave is in general partly reflected
and partly refracted(transmitted)
into the second material.
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Figure 1
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Remember these
With regard to the direction of the incident,
reflected and refracted ray
The incident, refracted and reflected rays
and the normal to the surface all line in
the same plane(Law of Refraction or
Snells Law).
The angle of the reflected is equal to the
angle of incidence for all wavelengths
and for any pair of substance(Law of
Reflection).
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Remember these
For monochromatic light and for a given
pair of substance, a and b, an opposite
sides of the surface of separation, the ratio
of the sine of the angle a (between the
ray in substance a and the normal) and
the sine of the angle b (between the ray
in substance b and normal) is constant.

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Remember these
Now lets consider a beam of monochromatic
light travelling in vacuum, making an angle of
incidence 0 with the normal to the surface of
a substance a and let a be the angle of the
refracteion into the substance. In this case
we call the constant in Snells law the index
of refraction of substance a, denoted by na.

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Sample problem
In figure 1, material a is water and material
b is a glass with an index of refraction of
1.50. if the incident ray makes an angle of
60o with the normal, find the directions of
the reflected and refracted rays.

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Solution
The angle the reflected way makes with the normal
is the same as that of the incident ray, hence,
r=a= 60o to find the direction of the refracted ray,
we use the equation:

nasina=nbsinb
na=1.33(index of refraction of water),
nb=1.50(index of refraction of glass)
a=60o.
(1.33)(sin60)=(1.50)(sinb),
b=50.2o
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Polarization and Scattering

of light
(use powerpoint No.3)

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