Reflection and Refraction, a wave or a particle?

The question of whether or not light could be perceived as a wave or as a straight line of extremely small
particles has been a perplexing question, answered in the late 1700s by some scientists, notably that of
Sir Isaac Newton, in which he came to the conclusion of corpuscular theory, in which he arrived to the
hypothesis that light was a group of particles, whilst others still believed in the wave theory in which
light was made up of waves, however either theory you would believe, each would have their reason for
being highly debated, for example the corpuscular theory cannot explain wave-like phenomenon such
as diffraction and interference. On the other hand, the wave theory cannot explain why photons fly out
of metal that is exposed to light otherwise known as the photoelectric effect.

The two scientists, and their differences.

In the module of Propagation of Light, two names synonymous with the study of light are that of, Rene
Descartes, and of the aforementioned Sir Isaac Newton.

For Rene Descartes He was the first to explore and explain the concept of Refraction, he achieved this
by using a spherical glass filled with water and sunlight to produce a rainbow, and after his experiment
concluded he came to the hypothesis that, refraction brought about the formation of rainbows,
following that he also did another experiment in which it was found that the emergence of colors of
light through the concept of the plenum, the invisible substance that permeated the universe, these
“plenum” that he discovered was visualized as being made of tiny rotating balls with the same speed
Light travelled through this plenum and as the plenum reached the edge of a prism, the balls changed
their rotational speeds resulting to the emergence of colors or in simpler terms, a rainbow.

And as for Sir Isaac Newton, He stated that the difference in refraction was due to the differences in the
mass of the colors of light, Particles of matter also exert equal force to the particles of light the colors of
light with different mass and inertia will be deflected at varying degrees when they passed through an
interface of matter, light particles with great mass and inertia are deflected less when acted upon by the
same force of matter.

The Two Faces of Light, a Wave and a Particle

As stated prior the two beliefs that Light can either be a Wave or a group of Particles, however both
having distinct differences from one another, primarily in that when particles travel they do so in a
straight line and whenever they do hit an obstacle or obstruction they produce shadows, this is also the
reason why when light hits a mirror they bounce off or otherwise reflect light, thusly acting so that,
Refraction can be observed whenever Light particles when they traverse through media or materials of
different refractive indices, it is also thought that the opposing forces pull the particles of light from and
into the medium resulting into changes of the light particles in their direction

Whilst as a wave, light behaves in the way that it has the ability to diffract or bend around an object,
Diffraction is when waves of light have a change in their direction when they pass from an opening or
around obstacles along their path, whilst Refraction happens when light waves change direction as they
travel through materials of different refractive indices, say water and air

The three type of mirrors in studying images

It is well known that whenever we use a mirror we appear as a reflection, often being upside down, and
the two types of mirrors regularly heard by students and used by scientists alike, that being a Concave
and a Convex Mirror, but there is a third one called a Plane Mirror, let’s start on how scientific studies
use and define a plane mirror

A plane mirror is a completely flat type of mirror without any other distorting features and one that
completely reflects 100% of the light that is thrown at it, making the light it does reflect very
predictable, its purpose on scientific studies is that to be used to produce images that are same size as
the object, that can be, laterally inverted or in which case left becomes right and right becomes left,
upright, virtual, these virtual images are formed due to imaginary intersection of light rays and cannot
be formed on the screen of the mirror

A concave mirror also known as converging mirrors because light is focused at a point as it strikes and
reflects back from the reflecting surface, these types of mirrors produce images that depend on the
location of the object at several locations different characteristics of images can be observed. these
images formed can be located somewhere between the centre of curvature (C) and the focal point (F),
at C, beyond C, and somewhere on the opposite side of the mirror. At times, no images are formed by
the mirror. Images can be inverted or upright, smaller, bigger, or the same size as the object, and real or
virtual.

A convex mirror otherwise called diverging mirrors for as light strikes and bounces back it spreads over
a required region within the mirror, these types of mirrors on the other hand produce images that are
located behind the mirror, virtual, upright, and reduced in size in which these terms are followed the
further an objects distance is from the mirror the image distance is also decreased and the image size is
increased.

Propagation of light

Light, an electromagnetic radiation, travels through space as oscillating waves, composed of alternating

wavelengths, carrying different energy amounts. It travels at a speed of 3.0x108 𝑚.

electric and magnetic fields. Its electromagnetic spectrum (EM) consists of varying frequencies and

The wavelength of light is directly proportional to the energy carried by a wave, with longer
wavelengths having lower frequencies. Light wave travels at a speed of 3.0x108 m/s through a vacuum.

determined by the ratio 𝑐/𝑣. Where c is the speed of light in a vacuum while v is the speed of light in a
The speed of light varies depending on the medium it passes through, with the index of refraction

particular medium. Higher indexes of refraction result in slower light movement, such as in water, where
more matter scatters light.

White light vibrates at different frequencies and disperses into ROY-G-BIV colours, with longer
wavelengths propagating faster than shorter wavelengths. Red, orange, and yellow waves propagate
faster, while blue, indigo, and violet have shorter wavelengths. Red is refracted less, while blue is most,
resulting in red being on top of a rainbow.

A surface can reflect, absorb (absorbed) or emit light upon reflection. Of light depends on the frequency
of the electrons of atoms present in the objects. Object, light energy will be set in vibrating motion and
eventually be absorbed. Vibration causes interactions between electrons and nearby atoms, which
transform the matter into energy. Frequency of the light wave matches the frequency at which electrons
in the atoms.

Waves of light reflect and transmit because their frequencies are the same? Do not match the natural
frequencies of vibration of objects. If the object is transparent, then vibration of the electrons are
passed on to. Light rays are selectively absorbed by materials and reflect back Into the environment.
Light is scattered only with shorter wavelengths due to the small size of particles, unlike light. However,
Larger particles in the atmosphere scatter longer wavelengths. The smallness of particles leads to a
higher scattering of blue light than red or orange light.