experiments with light waves

Top 15 Light Related Science Experiments

Light experiments lets us unlock some of nature’s most intriguing riddles and appreciate the magic that illuminates our everyday experiences.

We have carefully selected the best light-related experiments, prioritizing fun and educational experiences that will surely engage young minds.

Our compilation of light experiments will illuminate the minds of students and teachers alike. This curated collection offers an extraordinary opportunity to explore the captivating world of light through hands-on activities.

1. Potato Light Bulb

Prepare to be amazed by the power of potatoes in our extraordinary potato light bulb experiments! In these captivating experiments, students will discover the remarkable ability of a humble potato to generate electricity and light up an LED bulb.

Learn more: Potato Light Bulb

2. Bending Light

In these mesmerizing light experiments, students have the opportunity to unravel the mysteries of refraction and explore the wonders of bending light.

3. Light Refraction

By engaging in these experiments, students will not only witness the mesmerizing effects of light refraction but also gain a deeper understanding of the scientific principles behind it.

4. Newton’s Light Spectrum Experiment

Step into the fascinating world of light and color with Newton’s Light Spectrum Experiment! Inspired by the groundbreaking discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, these captivating experiments will take students on a journey to explore the nature of light.

5. Newton’s Prism Experiment

Learn about optics and unravel the mysteries of light with Newton’s Prism Experiment. Inspired by Sir Isaac Newton’s groundbreaking discoveries, these experiments offer a thrilling opportunity for students to explore the phenomenon of light dispersion and the creation of a vivid spectrum of colors.

6. Total Internal Reflection

These experiments provide a hands-on opportunity for students to observe and investigate how total internal reflection can be harnessed in practical applications such as fiber optics and reflective surfaces.

7. Colored Light Experiments

Prepare to immerse yourself in a vibrant world of colors with these captivating colored light experiments! In these hands-on activities, students will uncover the magic of colored light and its intriguing properties.

8. Capture a Light Wave

By employing innovative techniques and tools, students will learn how to capture and analyze light waves, unraveling the secrets hidden within their intricate patterns.

9. Home-made Kaleidescope

Unleash your creativity and embark on a mesmerizing journey of light and patterns with our homemade kaleidoscope experiments! By constructing your very own kaleidoscope, you’ll unlock optical wonders.

Learn more: Home-made Kaleidescope

10. Push Things with Light

Through engaging hands-on activities, students will experiment with the fascinating principles of photon momentum and the transfer of energy through light.

11. Erase Light with a Laser: The Photon Experiment

Can light be erased? Through hands-on activities, students will discover surprising answers. By utilizing lasers, students will learn about the principles of photon absorption and emission, investigating whether it is possible to erase light.

12. Exploring Shapes and Patterns on a Mirror Box

By creating your own mirror box, you’ll learn about optical illusions and reflections. In these experiments, students will explore the fascinating interplay between light, mirrors, and geometry.

Learn more: Exploring Shapes and Patterns on a Mirror Box

13. Electromagnetic Spectrum Experiment

Get ready for an illuminating adventure as we dive into the fascinating world of visible light where students will have the opportunity to explore the electromagnetic spectrum and unravel the mysteries of light.

 14. Light Patterns in a Box

By manipulating light sources and objects, students will witness the magic of shadows, diffraction, and interference, resulting in a dazzling display of intricate patterns and colors.

Learn more: Light Patterns in a Box

15. Light Maze

Prepare to navigate a mesmerizing journey through the enchanting world of light with our captivating light maze experiments! In these immersive activities, students will learn about the magic of manipulating light to create intricate mazes and pathways.

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Light Wave Experiments

How to Make a Rainbow Science Experiment: Refraction

Light waves, which have been found to exhibit characteristics of particles, behave in certain ways that we can observe by experimentation. Light waves diffract in the same manner that waves diffract when they collide with an object. They also undergo interference when passing through or reflecting against objects of different mediums.

Bending Light

Remove the sharp end of a blue tack and glue the top to a penny. Place a solid-colored ceramic bowl on a tabletop, and then place the penny in the bowl, with the tack side facing up. Back away from the bowl until you cannot see the penny. Fill a large glass with water and pour it slowly into the ceramic bowl. From a distance, watch the penny begin to appear as you fill the bowl with water. This demonstrates the ability to bend light over a top or corner, where an object was not visible before.

Sunlight Waves and Particles

Fill one clear plastic cup with tonic water and another clear plastic cup with tap water. Use a felt pen to mark the tonic cup with a "T." Set the cups outside in the sunlight when the sun is at its highest (i.e., noon). Hold a large piece of black paper behind both cups. Examine the color of the water through the sides of the plastic cups. Notice the blue coloration near the top of the tonic cup. The quinine in the tonic absorbs ultraviolet light and emits it as visible light.

Reflecting Light Waves

Obtain a very shiny spoon, preferably a highly polished silver spoon. Notice the reflection of your face on the inside of the spoon. Turn the spoon over and look at your reflection on the outer side of the spoon. The inside of the spoon, i.e., the convex side, makes your face appear larger, while the convex side makes your face appear smaller. This experiment shows how light waves reflect differently from curved surfaces by dispersing in different directions.

Spectrum Rainbow

Stand in your front yard on a warm day, an hour or two before or after noon. Turn your back to the sun. Hold a water hose and adjust the pressure nozzle for a fine mist spray. Spray a large mist against a dark background, like a hedge or tree trunk. You will see all the colors of the spectrum through the mist, beginning with red and ending with indigo and violet. This experiment demonstrates how light waves bend and slow down as they travel through water. Each color bends at its own angle, allowing you see each color individually.

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• Science Kids at Home: Sunlight Experiment
• Physicsclassroom.com: Wavelike Behavior of Light

About the Author

Chris Stevenson has been writing since 1988. His automotive vocation has spanned more than 35 years and he authored the auto repair manual "Auto Repair Shams and Scams" in 1990. Stevenson holds a P.D.S Toyota certificate, ASE brake certification, Clean Air Act certification and a California smog license.

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Find Your Next Great Science Fair Project! GO

11+ Bright and Shining Light Experiments for Kids

Categories Science Experiments

These light experiments for kids are fun and easy to do. They’re the perfect way to teach them about how light works and even take it further to talk about refraction and reflection as well. You can also use these activities to talk about circuits and how energy travels to create the light that we’ve all come to need and love.

This list of fun science experiments for kids are a great way to show kids that it’s fun to learn by using hands-on experiments as well. These light science activities are all simple and easy to do and produce really bright and cool results!

Here are some great choices for unique light science experiments for kids.

Light Science Experiments for Kids

Kids love learning about light because it’s something we use everyday. If you’re learning about light, you’ll want to try some of the light experiments on this list!

Get ready to learn fun things about how light works, how shadows work, and where light comes from!

Where Does Light Come From?

Light is a form of energy. Energy is a power by which things move. On earth, most of our light comes from the sun.

The sun is a star. Other stars are too far away from our planet to give us usable light.

Light from the sun can travel by particle or by waves. Its wave form is how we see color. Long wavelengths produce colors like red and orange. Shorter light waves generate blues and purples. All the colors together create white light.

Light travels incredibly fast. Light can travel about 186,282 miles per second. Crazy!

Other light sources can include fire, electricity, and even some animals, plants and minerals can give off forms of light.

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11+ Light Experiments for Kids

Check out these super fun experiments for learning about light!

Learn about the visible light spectrum when you make a rainbow density jar!

Learn about where light comes from when you learn about far away stars and galaxies with this Galaxy Jar Experiment .

Observe how light changes when it is filtered through this Melted Crayon Suncatcher.

Learn about how circuits and electric lights work when you learn How to Use Squishy Circuits .

The kids will love seeing how the light refracts from various angles in this Light Refraction Experiment .

Show them a true light show by using this fun Flashlight Constellations activity.

See how the light affects this oobleck and changes it into a Glow in the Dark Oobleck experiment .

Can you ever have too many Glow in the Dark Science Experiments ? I think not!

The light is what makes these Shadow Experiments so much fun.

Learning about Rainbow Salt Circuit s is a fun and easy way to learn about how electricity can flow through something natural and still make light!

The Easy Static Electricity Experiment with a Balloon is a great way to talk about energy and light flow.

Does the pencil really bend or is it just a refraction of the light? Find out with this bending pencil experiment.

This silver egg science experiment looks like magic, but it’s actually a really cool scientific trick of the light!

Find out if light will shine through different types of rocks.

Explore shapes and light with this geometric light table activity.

More Science Experiments for Kids

How to Make an Instant Ice Rainbow

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25 Rainbow Science Experiments with Bright and Beautiful Colors

Rainbow Printables for Kids

Share this project with a friend!

December 12, 2013

Double-Slit Science: How Light Can Be Both a Particle and a Wave

Learn how light can be two things at once with this illuminating experiment

By Education.com & Mack Levine

Key Concepts Light Wave Particle Lasers

Introduction You may have heard that light consists of particles called photons. How could something as simple as light be made of particles? Physicists describe light as both a particle and a wave. In fact, light's wavelike behavior is responsible for a lot of its cool effects, such as the iridescent colors produced on the surface of bubbles. To see a dramatic and mind-bending example of how light behaves like a wave, all you need is three pieces of mechanical pencil lead, a laser pointer and a dark room.

Background Sound is a great example of a wave that propagates, or travels, much like ripples in a pond do. In both cases kinetic energy flows through matter without permanently displacing the molecules in the matter itself—instead, it puts the matter through phases of compression (where the molecules get pushed together) and rarefaction (where the molecules spread apart). Think of the inside of a speaker vibrating with the music.

Diffraction

Light bends when it passes around an edge or through a slit. This bending is called diffraction. You can easily demonstrate diffraction using a candle or a small bright flashlight bulb and a slit made with two pencils. The diffraction pattern—the pattern of dark and light created when light bends around an edge or edges—shows that light has wavelike properties.

• Two clean new pencils with erasers
• A piece of transparent tape (any thin tape will do)
• A Mini Maglite flashlight ( do not substitute other flashlights ) or a candle with matches or a lighter
• Optional: Pieces of cloth, a feather, plastic diffraction grating, metal screen, a human hair

• Light the candle or, if you are using a Mini Maglite, unscrew the top of the flashlight. The tiny lamp will come on and shine brightly. CAUTION: if you are using an LED Mini Maglite, be sure it is s et to dim before unscrewing the top of the flashlight. Avoid staring directly at the light for a long period of time.
• Wrap one layer of tape around the top of one of the pencils, just below the eraser.

Place the light on a stable surface at least one arm’s length away from you.

Hold up the two pencils, side by side, with the erasers at the top. The tape wrapped around one pencil should keep the pencils slightly apart, forming a thin slit between them, just below the tape. Hold both pencils close to one eye (about 1 inch [2.5 cm] away) and look at the light source through the slit between the pencils. Squeeze the pencils together, making the slit smaller.

Notice that there is a line of light perpendicular to the slit. While looking through the slit, rotate the pencils until they are horizontal, and notice that the line of light becomes vertical.

If you look closely you may see that the line is composed of tiny blobs of light. As you squeeze the slit together, the blobs of light grow larger and spread apart, moving away from the central light source and becoming easier to see. Notice that the blobs have blue and red edges and that the blue edges are closer to the light source.

Stretch a hair tight and hold it about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from your eye. Move the hair until it is between your eye and the light source, and notice that the light is spread into a line of blobs by the hair, just as it was by the slit. Rotate the hair and watch the line of blobs rotate.

Look at the light through a piece of cloth, a feather, a diffraction grating, or a piece of metal screen. Rotate each object while you look through it.

The black bands between the blobs of light show that a wave is associated with the light. The light waves that go through the slit spread out, overlap, and add together, producing the diffraction pattern you see. Where the crest of one wave overlaps with the crest of another wave, the two waves combine to make a bigger wave, and you see a bright blob of light. Where the trough of one wave overlaps with the crest of another wave, the waves cancel each other out, and you see a dark band.

The angle at which the light bends is proportional to the wavelength of the light. Red light, for instance, has a longer wavelength than blue light, so it bends more than blue light does. This different amount of bending gives the blobs their colored edges: blue on the inside, red on the outside.

The narrower the slit, the more the light spreads out. In fact, the angle between two adjacent dark bands in the diffraction pattern is inversely proportional to the width of the slit.

Thin objects, such as a strand of hair, also diffract light. Light that passes around the hair spreads out, overlaps, and produces a diffraction pattern. Cloth and feathers, which are both made up of many smaller, thinner parts, produce complicated diffraction patterns.

In a dimly lit room, look at a Mini Maglite bulb with one eye (a candle will not work). Notice the lines of light radiating out from the light source, like the seeds radiating out from the center of a dandelion. 

How can you find the origin of these lines? Rotate the light source and notice that the lines of light do not rotate. Rotate your head and notice that the lines do rotate. Hold your hand or an index card in front of your eye so that it doesn’t quite block your view of the light source (click to enlarge diagram below).

Notice that you still see a full circle of lines radiating out from the light source. The effect actually happens in your eye, as lines of light are spread out onto your retina by imperfections in the tissues of your cornea.

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Light And Sound Science Experiments

Easy light and sound science experiments you can do at home! Click on the experiment image or the view experiment link below for each experiment on this page to see the materials needed and procedure. Have fun trying these experiments at home or use them for SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT IDEAS.

Clucking Chicken In A Cup:

Talking String:

Teach A String To Talk

Trombone Straw:

Noisy Paper:

Bug On A Leash:

Super Easy Pan Flute:

Make Music With This Easy Sound Experiment

Duck In A Cup:

Crazy Kazoo:

Ignite Your Kids’ Curiosity with These 16 Dazzling Light Experiments

Activities » Science » Ignite Your Kids’ Curiosity with These 16 Dazzling Light Experiments

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From rainbow light refractions to exploring the visible spectrum, there are so many fascinating and fun science projects about light for children to explore.

Whether you’re a teacher in need of activities that will engage your students or a homeschooler who wants to find new methods of educating your little ones, this ultimate list of light experiments for kids is sure to keep them happily learning!

With easy-to-follow instructions and simple materials, these exciting experiments dive into basic concepts such as reflection, absorption, diffusion, and much more.

I scoured the internet to discover the BEST activities for experimenting with light. This post includes dozens of fun science light experiments for kids to keep you and your kids busy. These science lessons are so good that kids have fun, are engaged, and want to learn more!

Light Science Experiments for Kids

Build your diy spectroscope from buggy & buddy.

Kids will LOVE to make their DIY spectroscope! The best part of this science activity is that it can be done with a few simple materials and explore the spectrum of different light sources.

The author offers a step-by-step, easy-to-follow approach, which is always helpful! 

This light science activity for kids makes a great addition to a unit on light or weather. You get to see rainbows, so add it to an April preschool unit or St. Patrick’s Day-themed unit.

Sky Science – Why does the sky change colors? from Steam Powered Family

Finally, have an answer to the age-old question:  why is the sky blue? Even better, explore why the sky changes color at sunrise and sunset.

You can explain until you’re blue in the face about the science of the sky colors, but experimenting brings the understanding to a new level. 

Learning about Optics with Two Fun Light Experiments! by From Engineer to Stay at Home Mom

Explore how light behaves with this activity! Furthermore, explain the concept of OPTICS as the study of how light works. This water and light experiment showed him how light works.   

Explore the Eye’s Blind Spot from Carrots Are Orange

The blind spot is a little spot of the eye. Everyone has a blind spot. The blind spot is the point in the eye where all the nerves in the eye come together.

The nerves form a bundle called the optic nerve, which runs from the eye to the brain.

So, why makes the blind spot “blind’?

Simple Light Refraction Experiment from Look We’re Learning

This simple light refraction experiment teaches kids an easy way to teach kids about light!

Light Activities for Preschoolers from Carrots Are Orange

This post includes loads of light energy experiments and ideas to explore.

DIY Sundial from KC Adventures

Learn an easy way to make a sundial using simple materials.

UV Light Experiment from Inspiration Laboratories

Try this simple exploration to explore ultraviolet light with your child.

Exploring Science Through Art: Colour & Light by Childhood 101

This activity is sweet and to the point—what a lovely hands-on way to explore color and light.

Reflection Science with Light Patterns in a Box from Buggy & Buddy

A super cool and remarkably easy-to-put-together light energy experiment.

Rainbow Science for Kids: Exploring Prisms from Buggy & Buddy

Prisms are one of the most beautiful and simple materials. Learn ways to explore light reflection with this simple object!

Easy Motion Science Experiment from Carrots Are Orange

Learn how movies are made with this  easy motion science experiment . My sons have been on a “how does this work?” kick. This easy science experiment  was one answer to “how do movies get onto a screen?”

Science for Kids: How to Make a Kaleidoscope

Kids love light reflection experiments! Learn  how to make a kaleidoscope in this fun & easy science activity and a craft for kids. Kids love to explore light, reflections, and symmetry by creating their kaleidoscope.

Build a Light Maze

This science experiment on light is unique and embraces imagination (and a flashlight experiment which is always fun!). My son LOVED this “build a light maze activity,” and I bet your child will enjoy it, too.

Candy Wrapper Science – Color Mixing

Kids will have a lot of fun exploring color mixing and light with this hands-on science exploration.

Laser Science for Kids: The Glowing Lollipop

Learn about light refraction with this cool laser pointer lollipop experiment.

As you can see, there are a ton of great light experiments for kids that are both fun and educational. We hope this list has inspired you to try out some of these activities with your children or students.

If you end up trying one (or more) of them, we’d love to hear about it. Which activity jumped out at you? Share it with your friends!

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Easy Motion Science Experiment that Will Wow Your Kids

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Arctic Animal Science Experiment for Preschoolers

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[Baking Soda and Vinegar] Experiment with Balloons - Earth Day Science

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• Light & Sound Experiments
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• 150 Science Experiments

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Amplify underwater sounds

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No red light, no work!

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The double-slit experiment: Is light a wave or a particle?

The double-slit experiment is universally weird.

How does the double-slit experiment work?

Interference patterns from waves, particle patterns, double-slit experiment: quantum mechanics, history of the double-slit experiment, additional resources.

The double-slit experiment is one of the most famous experiments in physics and definitely one of the weirdest. It demonstrates that matter and energy (such as light) can exhibit both wave and particle characteristics — known as the particle-wave duality of matter — depending on the scenario, according to the scientific communication site Interesting Engineering .

According to the University of Sussex , American physicist Richard Feynman referred to this paradox as the central mystery of quantum mechanics. 

We know the quantum world is strange, but the two-slit experiment takes things to a whole new level. The experiment has perplexed scientists for over 200 years, ever since the first version was first performed by British scientist Thomas Young in 1801.

Related: 10 mind-boggling things you should know about quantum physics  

Christian Huygens was the first to describe light as traveling in waves whilst Isaac Newton thought light was composed of tiny particles according to Las Cumbres Observatory . But who is right? British polymath Thomas Young designed the double-slit experiment to put these theories to the test. 

To appreciate the truly bizarre nature of the double-split experiment we first need to understand how waves and particles act when passing through two slits. 

When Young first carried out the double-split experiment in 1801 he found that light behaved like a wave. 

Firstly, if we were to shine a light on a wall with two parallel slits — and for the sake of simplicity, let's say this light has only one wavelength. 

As the light passes through the slits, each, in turn, becomes almost like a new source of light. On the far side of the divider, the light from each slit diffracts and overlaps with the light from the other slit, interfering with each other. 

According to Stony Brook University , any wave can create an interference pattern, whether it be a sound wave, light wave or waves across a body of water. When a wave crest hits a wave trough they cancel each other out — known as destructive interference — and appear as a dark band. When a crest hits a crest they amplify each other — known as constructive interference — and appear as a bright band. The combination of dark and bright bands is known as an interference pattern and can be seen on the sensor screen opposite the slits. 

This interference pattern was the evidence Young needed to determine that light was a wave and not a particle as Newton had suggested. 

But that is not the whole story. Light is a little more complicated than that, and to see how strange it really is we also need to understand what pattern a particle would make on a sensor field. 

If you were to carry out the same experiment and fire grains of sand or other particles through the slits, you would end up with a different pattern on the sensor screen. Each particle would go through a slit end up in a line in roughly the same place (with a little bit of spread depending on the angle the particle passed through the slit).  

Clearly, waves and particles produce a very different pattern, so it should be easy to distinguish between the two right? Well, this is where the double-slit experiment gets a little strange when we try and carry out the same experiment but with tiny particles of light called photons. Enter the realm of quantum mechanics. 

The smallest constituent of light is subatomic particles called photons. By using photons instead of grains of sand we can carry out the double-slit experiment on an atomic scale. 

If you block off one of the slits, so it is just a single-slit experiment, and fire photons through to the sensor screen, the photons will appear as pinprick points on the sensor screen, mimicking the particle patterns produced by sand in the previous example. From this evidence, we could suggest that photons are particles. 

Now, this is where things start to get weird. 

If you unblock the slit and fire photons through both slits, you start to see something very similar to the interference pattern produced by waves in the light example. The photons appear to have gone through the pair of slits acting like waves. 

But what if you launch photons one by one, leaving enough time between them that they don't have a chance of interfering with each other, will they behave like particles or waves? 

At first, the photons appear on the sensor screen in a random scattered manner, but as you fire more and more of them, an interference pattern begins to emerge. Each photon by itself appears to be contributing to the overall wave-like behavior that manifests as an interference pattern on the screen — even though they were launched one at a time so that no interference between them was possible.

It's almost as though each photon is "aware" that there are two slits available. How? Does it split into two and then rejoin after the slit and then hit the sensor? To investigate this, scientists set up a detector that can tell which slit the photon passes through. 

Again, we fire photons one at a time at the slits, as we did in the previous example. The detector finds that about 50% of the photons have passed through the top slit and about 50% through the bottom, and confirms that each photon goes through one slit or the other. Nothing too unusual there. 

But when we look at the sensor screen on this experiment, a different pattern emerges. 

This pattern matches the one we saw when we fired particles through the slits. It appears that monitoring the photons triggers them to switch from the interference pattern produced by waves to that produced by particles. 

If the detection of photons through the slits is apparently affecting the pattern on the sensor screen, what happens if we leave the detector in place but switch it off? (Shh, don't tell the photons we're no longer spying on them!) 

This is where things get really, really weird. 

Same slits, same photons, same detector, just turned off. Will we see the same particle-like pattern? 

No. The particles again make a wave-like interference pattern on the sensor screen. 

The atoms appear to act like waves when you're not watching them, but as particles when you are. How? Well, if you can answer that, a Nobel Prize is waiting for you. 

In the 1930s, scientists proposed that human consciousness might affect quantum mechanics. Mathematician John Von Neumann first postulated this in 1932 in his book " The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics ." In the 1960s, theoretical physicist, Eugene Wigner conceived a thought experiment called Wigner's friend — a paradox in quantum physics that describes the states of two people, one conducting the experiment and the observer of the first person, according to science magazine Popular Mechanics . The idea that the consciousness of a person carrying out the experiment can affect the result is knowns as the Von Neumann–Wigner interpretation.

Though a spiritual explanation for quantum mechanic behavior is still believed by a few individuals, including author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra , a majority of the science community has long disregarded it. 

As for a more plausible theory, scientists are stumped. 

Furthermore —and perhaps even more astonishingly — if you set up the double-slit experiment to detect which slit the photon went through after the photon has already hit the sensor screen, you still end up with a particle-type pattern on the sensor screen, even though the photon hadn't yet been detected when it hit the screen. This result suggests that detecting a photon in the future affects the pattern produced by the photon on the sensor screen in the past. This experiment is known as the quantum eraser experiment and is explained in more detail in this informative video from Fermilab . 

We still don't fully understand how exactly the particle-wave duality of matter works, which is why it is regarded as one of the greatest mysteries of quantum mechanics. 

The first version of the double-slit experiment was carried out in 1801 by British polymath Thomas Young, according to the American Physical Society (APS). His experiment demonstrated the interference of light waves and provided evidence that light was a wave, not a particle. 

Young also used data from his experiments to calculate the wavelengths of different colors of light and came very close to modern values.

Despite his convincing experiment that light was a wave, those who did not want to accept that Isaac Newton could have been wrong about something criticized Young. (Newton had proposed the corpuscular theory, which posited that light was composed of a stream of tiny particles he called corpuscles.) 

According to APS, Young wrote in response to one of the critics, "Much as I venerate the name of Newton, I am not therefore obliged to believe that he was infallible."

Since the development of quantum mechanics, physicists now acknowledge light to be both a particle and a wave. 

Explore the double-slit experiment in more detail with this article from the University of Cambridge, which includes images of electron patterns in a double-slit experiment. Discover the true nature of light with Canon Science Lab . Read about fragments of energy that are not waves or particles — but could be the fundamental building blocks of the universe — in this article from The Conversation . Dive deeper into the two-slit experiment in this article published in the journal Nature . 

Bibliography

Grangier, Philippe, Gerard Roger, and Alain Aspect. " Experimental evidence for a photon anticorrelation effect on a beam splitter: a new light on single-photon interferences. " EPL (Europhysics Letters) 1.4 (1986): 173.

Thorn, J. J., et al. "Observing the quantum behavior of light in an undergraduate laboratory. " American Journal of Physics 72.9 (2004): 1210-1219.

Ghose, Partha. " The central mystery of quantum mechanics. " arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.0898 (2009).

Aharonov, Yakir, et al. " Finally making sense of the double-slit experiment. " Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.25 (2017): 6480-6485.

Peng, Hui. " Observations of Cross-Double-Slit Experiments. " International Journal of Physics 8.2 (2020): 39-41. 

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Daisy Dobrijevic joined Space.com in February 2022 having previously worked for our sister publication All About Space magazine as a staff writer. Before joining us, Daisy completed an editorial internship with the BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space Centre in Leicester, U.K., where she enjoyed communicating space science to the public. In 2021, Daisy completed a PhD in plant physiology and also holds a Master's in Environmental Science, she is currently based in Nottingham, U.K. Daisy is passionate about all things space, with a penchant for solar activity and space weather. She has a strong interest in astrotourism and loves nothing more than a good northern lights chase! 

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The Nature of Light

Introduction.

Light is a transverse, electromagnetic wave that can be seen by the typical human. The wave nature of light was first illustrated through experiments on diffraction and interference . Like all electromagnetic waves, light can travel through a vacuum. The transverse nature of light can be demonstrated through polarization .

• In 1678, Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) published Traité de la Lumiere , where he argued in favor of the wave nature of light. Huygens stated that an expanding sphere of light behaves as if each point on the wave front were a new source of radiation of the same frequency and phase.
• Thomas Young (1773–1829) and Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) disproved Newton's corpuscular theory.

Light is produced by one of two methods…

• Incandescence is the emission of light from "hot" matter (T ≳ 800 K).
• Luminescence is the emission of light when excited electrons fall to lower energy levels (in matter that may or may not be "hot").

Just notes so far. The speed of light in a vacuum is represented by the letter c from the Latin celeritas — swiftness. Measurements of the speed of light.

Veramente non l'ho sperimentata, salvo che in lontananza piccola, cioè manco d'un miglio, dal che non ho potuto assicurarmi se veramente la comparsa del lume opposto sia instantanea; ma ben, se non instantanea, velocissima…. In fact I have tried the experiment only at a short distance, less than a mile, from which I have not been able to ascertain with certainty whether the appearance of the opposite light was instantaneous or not; but if not instantaneous it is extraordinarily rapid …. Galileo Galilei, 1638 Galileo Galilei, 1638

Ole Rømer (1644–1710) Denmark. "Démonstration touchant le mouvement de la lumière trouvé par M. Roemer de l'Académie des Sciences." Journal des Scavans . 7 December 1676. Rømer's idea was to use the transits of Jupiter's moon Io to determine the time. Not local time, which was already possible, but a "universal" time that would be the same for all observers on the Earth, Knowing the standard time would allow one to determine one's longitude on the Earth — a handy thing to know when navigating the featureless oceans.

Unfortunately, Io did not turn out to be a good clock. Rømer observed that times between eclipses got shorter as Earth approached Jupiter, and longer as Earth moved farther away. He hypothesized that this variation was due to the time it took for light to travel the lesser or greater distance, and estimated that the time for light to travel the diameter of the Earth's orbit, a distance of two astronomical units, was 22 minutes.

• The speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant in all reference frames.
• The speed of light in a vacuum is fixed at 299,792,458 m/s by the current definition of the meter.
• The speed of light in a medium is always slower the speed of light in a vacuum.
• The speed of light depends upon the medium through which it travels.The speed of anything with mass is always less than the speed of light in a vacuum.

other characteristics

The amplitude of a light wave is related to its intensity.

• Intensity is the absolute measure of a light wave's power density.
• Brightness is the relative intensity as perceived by the average human eye.

The frequency of a light wave is related to its color.

• Color is such a complex topic that it has its own section in this book.
• Laser light is effectively monochromatic.
• There are six simple, named colors in English (and many other languages) each associated with a band of monochromatic light. In order of increasing frequency they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet .
• Light is sometimes also known as visible light to contrast it from "ultraviolet light" and "infrared light"
• Other forms of electromagnetic radiation that are not visible to humans are sometimes also known informally as "light"
• Nearly every light source is polychromatic.
• White light is polychromatic.

A graph of relative intensity vs. frequency is called a spectrum (plural: spectra ). Although frequently associated with light, the term can be applied to any wave phenomena.

• Blackbody radiators emit a continuous spectrum.
• The excited electrons in a gas emit a discrete spectrum.

The wavelength of a light wave is inversely proportional to its frequency.

• Light is often described by it's wavelength in a vacuum .
• Light ranges in wavelength from 400 nm on the violet end to 700 nm on the red end of the visible spectrum.

Phase differences between light waves can produce visible interference effects. (There are several sections in this book on interference phenomena and light.)

Leftovers about animals.

• Falcon can see a 10 cm. object from a distance of 1.5 km.
• Fly's Eye has a flicker fusion rate of 300/s. Humans have a flicker fusion rate of only 60/s in bright light and 24/s in dim light. The flicker fusion rate is the frequency with which the "flicker" of an image cannot be distinguished as an individual event. Like the frame of a movie… if you slowed it down, you would see individual frames. Speed it up and you see a constantly moving image. Octopus' eye has a flicker fusion frequency of 70/s in bright light.
• Penguin has a flat cornea that allows for clear vision underwater. Penguins can also see into the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• Sparrow Retina has 400,000 photoreceptors per square. mm.
• Reindeer can see ultraviolet wavelengths, which may help them view contrasts in their mostly white environment.

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