Discrete Energy

Observations
When light of a particular frequency shines onto a metal plate, it releases electrons from the surface straight
away. Increasing the intensity increased the number of electrons emitted. If the frequency of the light is
lowered, no electrons were emitted at all. Increasing the intensity or giving it more time does nothing, no
electrons are emitted.

If light was a Wave…

Increasing the intensity would increase the energy of the light. The energy from the light would be evenly
spread over the metal and each electron would be given a small amount of energy. Eventually the electron
would have enough energy to be removed from the metal.

Photons
Max Planck had the idea that light could be released in ‘chunks’ or packets of energy. Einstein named these
wave-packets photons. The energy carried by a photon is given by the equation:

hc
E  hf Since c  f we can also write this as: E 


Where c is the speed of light in a vacuum = 3x108ms-1

Planck’s constant h=6.63x10-34 J s

Wave-Particle Duality
Wave-particle duality means that light sometimes behave like a particle and sometimes like a wave:

Light as a Wave
Diffraction, interference, polarisation and refraction all prove that light has wave properties.
Light as a Particle
We have seen that the photoelectric effect shows that light can behave as a particle called a photon.