Science Reviewer date: February 4, 2024

Light Waves and their Characteristics

Visible Light or simply light, is a form of electromagnetic radiation with
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frequency ranges from 4 x 10 to 8 x 10 Hz. It is responsible for the
sense of sight. The wavelength of light ranges from 7.5 x 10 in the red
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end (longest wavelength, but with the lowest frequency) down to 3.8 x 10
in the violet end (shortest wavelength, but with the highest frequency).
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Light travels very quickly. It can travel a speed of 3 x 108 m/s through
space. Light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth.
Light exists as both a particle and a wave.
Nature of Light
Plato thought that light consisted of streamers emitted by the eye.
It gained support from Euclid but was contradicted by Pythagoras as
the latter believed that light originated from luminous bodies in the
form of very fine particles. Empedocles, a forerunner of Plato,
believed that light is composed of high-speed waves of some sort. Until
the beginning of the 20th century, the real nature of light was a
considerable subject for discussion among scientists and physicists all
over the world.
There were two theories on the basic nature of light. The first
theory was the wave or the undulatory theory which explains that
light has a wave motion, which starts from a vibrating body which is
transmitted at high speed. One of the proponents of the wave theory
was Christian Huygens (1629-1695), who explained the reflection of light
using wave motion. He also proposed that light consists of a series of
waves with their wavefronts at right angles to the path of the rays.
According to Huygen's principle, different points of a wavefront of
light set up a series of secondary waves. Since light can pass through a
vacuum, he explained that light may travel through a medium known as
ether, a mysterious substance which is not air.
In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton contradicted the wave theory as he
described light as a stream of particles or corpuscles. Based on this
theory known as the corpuscular or emission theory, light consists of
tiny particles of matter emitted by a source that travel only in
straight lines called rays.
Thomas Young (1773-1829) in his experiment in 1801, was able to
study the interference and diffraction of light. This established the
wave theory, which was reinforced when James Clerk Maxwell
constructed an oscillating electrical circuit which showed that changing
electric and magnetic fields could produce electromagnetic radiation
that could travel through a vacuum. Light eventually was proved to be
electromagnetic as Heinrich Hertz demonstrated in 1880 the existence
of electromagnetic waves (within radio frequency) that exhibit the
same properties as the light.
Science Reviewer date: February 4, 2024

Light Waves and their Characteristics

Nature of Light
In 1900, the wave theory was challenged when Max Planck (1858-1947)
hypothesized that the vibrating electrons in incandescent lights could
only have energies restricted to certain values. He introduced the
phenomenon known as blackbody radiation, which, according to him, was
emitted in discrete bundles of energy called quanta (plural for quantum).
This gave birth to the quantum theory of light. In 1905, Albert Einstein
published a Nobel Prize-winning paper, which states that light is
composed of bundles of wave energy called photons. These findings
supported Planck's theory.
In the latter part of the 19th century, several scientists have
observed that light was capable of ejecting electrons from various metal
surfaces. If light falls on a clean surface of metals, such as potassium
or sodium, electrons are emitted by the surface. This is called the
photoelectric effect. In 1923, Arthur Compton's (1892-1962) study of the
scattering of X-rays by electrons all required the assumption of a
particular nature for electromagnetic radiation without in any way
invalidating the wave theory of light. This possibility was further
established in 1924 when Louis Victor de Broglie proposed that every
particle of matter is somehow endowed with a wave to guide it as it
travels. Hence, the particle-wave duality of wave was established.

Color
Arranged in increaisng frequency, the EM waves presented in the
figure follow this order: radio, microwave, visible light, ultraviolet, X-
raty, and gamma rays. Each type of wave occupies a particular range of
wavelength known as band.

Intensity or Brightness
All light must come from a source. Luminous objects are the objects
that emit or send off their own light. They tend to radiate heat as an
effect of being luminous, and they can store energy. The sun, stars, light
bulbs, lamps, lasers, and campfires are the luminous objects that are
found in our daily life; and all of them are considered sources of light.
Nonluminous objects, on the other hand, are those that cannot emit their
own light. In order for us to see them, a light from a luminous object
must be reflected. The moon, cars, buildings, and most of the objects
that we see are nonluminous objects which are also termed as illuminated
objects.
Science Reviewer date: February 4, 2024

Light Waves and their Characteristics

Photometry deals with the measurement of visible light as perceived by
human eyes. The brightness of a light source is measured through luminous
intensity expressed in candela (cd), an SI base unit. When light waves
encounter any substance, they Incident light rays may either be
transmitted, refracted, reflected, or absorbed

Objects can be classified in terms of the way they allow light to pass
through them. Transparent materials such as air, glass, water, and clear
plastic permit the passage of light; while those that block light are
referred to as opaque. Examples of the latter are woods, concretes,
metals, and flesh of some animals. There are also objects that allow
only some amount of light to pass through, and they are called
translucent materials. These materials have both the characteristics of
opaque and transparent

Transparent - permit the passage of light

Opaque - block light
Translucent - allow only some amount of light to pass through