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We have been recently talking about light. We have been stuck on this topic for a few months. We have taken it few steps forward this time. We came to the conclusion that a wave is energy and light going through it is causing waves to move. They start out the same but as the waves push out farther they go their separate waves until one crashes. A particle is like a discrete bundle of light. Each discrete particle is like a photon. Wave particle duality is a conundrum. A conundrum is like a puzzle that can’t be solved. Light behaves like a wave and a particle. What evidence exists to support how light behaves like a wave and a particle?

The ancient Greeks believed that light was a stream of tiny particles. They said, “No one sees the light particles, because they are either too fast, small, or our eyes just see right through them.” Albert Einstein also agreed with the ancient Greeks. He advanced the theory in 1905. His explanation is this. “Light was made up of a stream of energy packets called photons.”

However, Christian Hygens and Thomas Young believed that light behaved like a particle. Christian Hygens first formed the idea in the late 1600’s. His theory was opposite of the Greeks. His idea was that light was definitely a wave. Thomas Young proved his theory in 1807. Thomas’s theory was “showing that when light passes through a very narrow opening, it could spread out and interfere with light passing through another opening.” Thomas Young tested his theory. “Young shinned a light through a very narrow slit. What he saw was a brighter bar of light that corresponded to the slit. But that was not all he saw. Young also percervieved additional light, not as bright in the areas around the bar. If light were a stream of particles, this additional light would not have been there. This experiment suggested that light spread out like a wave. In fact, a beam of light radiates outward at all times.” By this, Thomas was saying that light is scattered or it’s concentrated. When there is another opening of light, the light will become more concentrated and much more brighter. Light bends like a wave and can go through, in this case narrow splits.

However, these ‘elements’ need each other to be strong. Matter is stuff. Energy is a mover. A wave is the form of energy moving through matter. Particles is stuff.

References: http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/f/photon.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/light1.htm