Properties Of Light Waves

Billionths of a metre.

Properties of light waves. What is light an overview of the properties of light light or visible light commonly refers to electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye. Electromagnetic waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. Light electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye electromagnetic radiation occurs over an extremely wide range of wavelengths from gamma rays with wavelengths less than about 1 10 11 metre to radio waves measured in metres. Visible light consists of electromagnetic waves that behave like other waves.

An important property of light waves is the wavelength or the distance between one peak of a wave and the next peak the height of each peak or depth of each trough is called the amplitude. Soon after heinrich hertz confirmed maxwell s theory experimentally by generating and detecting radio waves in the laboratory and demonstrating that these waves behaved exactly like visible light exhibiting properties such as reflection refraction diffraction and interference. This is the currently selected item. Light waves propagate in straight lines in the homogeneous medium they reflect when they fall on a reflecting surface they refract when they travel between two transparent media different in the optical density according to the laws of refraction.

Maxwell s theory and hertz s experiments led directly to the. White light for example what comes out of a flashlight is actually made up of many waves that each exhibit one of the different colors of light red orange yellow green blue and violet. Properties of electromagnetic radiation and photons. Although either is an acceptable description of light for our purposes in introductory astronomy the wave.

The entire electromagnetic spectrum is extremely broad ranging from low energy radio waves with wavelengths that are measured in meters to high energy gamma rays with wavelengths. Wave properties of light. Polarization of light linear and circular. Electromagnetic waves the electromagnetic spectrum and photons.

As physical objects have wave like properties at the atomic level diffraction also occurs with matter and can be studied according to the principles of quantum mechanics. The reason that different waves of light appear to be different colors of light is because the color of a light wave depends on its wavelength. As a wave in an abstract electromagnetic field or as a stream of massless particles called photons. The electromagnetic spectrum can be divided into several bands based on the wavelength.

In modern physics light or electromagnetic radiation may be viewed in one of two complementary ways. Within that broad spectrum the wavelengths visible to humans occupy a very narrow band from about 700 nanometres nm. Light is electromagnetic radiation that has properties of waves.