We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Newton to Einstein: The Trail of Light Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
In making some experiments on the fringes of colors accompanying shadows, I have found so simple and so demonstrative a proof of the general law of the interference of two portions of light, which I have already endeavored to establish, that I think it right to lay before the Royal Society a short statement of the facts which appear to me so decisive.
Thomas Young, Bakerian Lecture, November 24, 1803Interference defined
In chapter 3, we framed the question, can we account for the behavior of light by supposing that light is wave motion of some kind?
So far, the logic of our response has been of this form: we asked experimentally, do waves have property X that we know light possesses? For “property X,” we took
the existence of reflection
the equality of the angles of reflection and incidence
the existence of refraction, and
Snell's law, in the sense that, in refraction, the ratio of sines is independent of the angle of incidence.
Each time, we could answer, yes, waves do have this property X that we know light possesses.
Beyond these tests, we found that the wave theory's prediction for the index of refraction – namely, a specific ratio of wave speeds – was resoundingly confirmed by Michelson's measurements of.
Things are going well for a wave theory of light. The time has come to shift the perspective and to change the logic of the testing.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
