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Early
Experiments on Light
-
Newton
(1642-1727) used two prisms to show that "normal light" (white light)
is really composed of all of the colors of the rainbow
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Because
of the way light bent in prisms, Newton thought light was made of tiny
particles (now called photons)
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Christiaan
Huygens in 1678 argued light is waves.
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NEWTON
AND HUYGENS ARE BOTH RIGHT
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Light
can be thought of as particles (photons) and waves
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Buzzword:
wave
packets
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Thomas
Young's double slit experiment in 1801 showed wave nature of light
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Electric
charge and magnetism were experimented with in the 1700s and 1800s
(Ben Franklin and his kite in the thunderstorm)
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James
Clerk Maxwell in the 1860s wrote down four equations that described how
electricity
and magnitism interelate
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A natural
consequence of Maxwell's equations is the propagation of electromagnetic
radiation
-
Maxwell's
equations predict the speed of light
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