So I understand that light is energy and can be modelled as a wave, where different frequencies are perceived as different colours. All good. But I don’t really understand that. I can understand sound because you can view it as changes in air pressure – and that can explain how sound travels and how it is perceived. But I can’t find anything similar intuitive explanation of how light works – how it is physically manifested, how it travels, and how it can be understood in terms of a wave. Any explanation I can find assumes that you already understand the light as waves concept.
In: 1
Light is modeled as both a particle and a wave depending on the circumstances. Certain experiments such as the double slit interference experiment show that light behaves like a wave. Others will show that light behaves as particles, such as the photoelectric effect and black body radiation. We don’t have a single unified theory that is able to explain both the wave and particle situations. This wave-particle duality is eventually what lead to quantum mechanics, which introduces statistics theory into the mix.
Anyways, light can be thought of as a beam of particles for the most part. Our current model of light as a wave shows that light isn’t a mechanical way, but rather is an electromagnetic wave with oscillating magnetic and electric fields that are perpendicular to each other.
Latest Answers