Light: Particle or Wave?

According to the ancient Greeks, how did vision work?

• Light originated in our eyes and little probes were sent to gather information about far-away objects

• Light originated in the sun and traveled to our eyes

• Light was emitted by the objects we see

• Light was reflected off objects into our eyes

What did Alhazen's theory propose about vision?

• Eyes send out invisible probes to gather information

• Eyes create their own light to see in the dark

• Eyes simply collect the light that falls into them

• Eyes emit light to see objects

What did Alhazen's theory explain that the Greek theory couldn't?

• Why it gets dark sometimes

• How refraction works

• Why objects emit their own light

• How interference patterns are formed

What did Isaac Newton believe light is made up of?

• Tiny, atom-like particles

• Waves like ripples on the surface of a pond

• Solid balls

• Quanta of energy

What did 19th century experiments show about light particles?

• Light particles make interference patterns

• Beams of light pass right through each other

• Light particles crash into each other and bounce off in random directions

• Two beams of light that cross paths interact with each other

What do interference patterns indicate about light?

• Light is made up of solid balls

• Light is made up of waves

• Light is made up of tiny, atom-like particles

• Light is made up of quanta of energy

What did 20th century experiments show about light?

• Light doesn't behave like either a particle or a wave

• Light sometimes behaves like a particle and sometimes behaves like a wave

• Light always behaves like a wave

• Light always behaves like a particle

What revolutionary new physics theory was led by the result of light sometimes behaving like a particle and sometimes behaving like a wave?

• Newton's Laws of Motion

• Theory of Relativity

• Quantum Mechanics

• String Theory

What is the conclusion about what light is?

• Light sometimes behaves like a particle and sometimes behaves like a wave, but it isn't exactly like either

• Light is exactly like something we're used to dealing with in our everyday lives

• Light is definitely a wave

• Light is definitely a particle

What did the Arab scientist, Alhazen, figure out about the old, Greek theory of light?

• It was proven by modern experiments

• It was completely accurate

• It couldn't be right

• It was partially correct