 |
The physics lecture was really interesting, Jiho! We talked about light and whether it's a particle or a wave. |
|
 |
Oh, that sounds cool! So, what did you learn? Is light a particle or a wave? |
|
|
Well, it turns out light is actually both. It's a concept known as wave-particle duality. |
|
|
Both? How can it be both? |
|
|
Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. Historically, there were two main theories about light. Some scientists, like Christiaan Huygens, believed it was a wave. |
|
|
So, who was right? |
|
|
Both were right, in a way. Light exhibits properties of both particles and waves. This was first shown in the early 20th century. For instance, the double - slit experiment shows light behaving like a wave. |
|
|
The double-slit experiment? What's that? |
|
|
It's an experiment where light is shone through two narrow slits onto a screen. If light were only a particle, we'd expect to see two bright spots behind the slits. But instead, we see an interference pattern, which is characteristic of waves. |
|
|
That does sound like a wave. But how does it also like a particle? |
|
|
That was explained by Albert Einstein with the photoelectric effect. He showed that light behaves as particles, or photons. |
|
|
Photons? |
|
|
Yeah, photons are the particle aspect of light. They are packets of energy, and the energy of a photon is proportional to the frequency of the light wave. So Iight has this dual nature, behaving as a wave in some situations and as particles in others. |
|
|
Wow, that's mind-blowing. So, light is really both at the same time? |
|
|
Exactly. It's one of the core ideas in quantum mechanics. Light doesn't fit neatly into the categories we use for everyday objects, but it is essential for understanding the nature of the universe. |
|