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.
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If you have two magnets that repel each other but aren’t touching, then push one and the other one moves. How? a ‘wave’ traveled between the two.
If an electron wiggles, it can make another electron wiggle in response (with a wave carrying the energy from one electron to another). If the electron that it wiggles in response is in your retina, you’ll interpret that as light.
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