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Light exerts physical pressure on objects in its path, a phenomenon which can be deduced by Maxwell's equations, but can be more easily explained by the particle nature of light: photons strike and transfer their momentum. Light pressure is equal to the power of the light beam divided by c, the speed of light.
In modern physics, the double-slit experiment demonstrates that light and matter can exhibit behavior of both classical particles and classical waves. This type of experiment was first performed by Thomas Young in 1801, as a demonstration of the wave behavior of visible light. [ 1 ]
At a sufficient distance, the speed at which the beam "moves" may exceed the speed of light. The lighthouse paradox is a thought experiment in which the speed of light is apparently exceeded. The rotating beam of light from a lighthouse is imagined to be swept from one object to shine on a second object. The farther the two objects are away ...
The light reflected back from the spherical mirrors is diverted by beam splitter g towards an eyepiece O. If mirror m is stationary, both images of the slit reflected by M and M' reform at position α. If mirror m is rapidly rotating, light reflected from M forms an image of the slit at α' while light reflected from M' forms an image of the ...
The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, [A 1] a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between April and July 1887 by American physicists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley at what is ...
Physics - Newton's corpuscular theory of light - Science. elearnin. Uploaded 5 Jan 2013. Robert Hooke's Critique of Newton's Theory of Light and Colors (delivered 1672) Robert Hooke. Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society, vol. 3 (London: 1757), pp. 10–15. Newton Project, University of Sussex. Corpuscule or Wave. Arman Kashef. 2022.
Later experiments showed that these light-quanta also carry momentum and, thus, can be considered particles: The photon concept was born, leading to a deeper understanding of the electric and magnetic fields themselves. The Maxwell wave theory, however, does not account for all properties of light.
For example, for visible light, the refractive index of glass is typically around 1.5, meaning that light in glass travels at c / 1.5 ≈ 200 000 km/s (124 000 mi/s); the refractive index of air for visible light is about 1.0003, so the speed of light in air is about 90 km/s (56 mi/s) slower than c.