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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Wave Interpretation of Light, this is the fifth lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of The Compton Effect and Pressure of Light, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
The wave interpretation of light is based on the action exerted by the electric component E⃗ (do not confuse it with energy, this is the electric field caused by light as an EM wave) and the magnetic one B⃗ of light waves on matter electrons. Electronic currents are induced under the effect of electric field and the magnetic Lorentz Force acts on them. This action determines the pressure effect of light. According to this theory, even if the existence of photons is not considered, the light pressure is calculated by the two equations
and
where the quantity w bears the meaning of volume density of light wave.
The debates on this topic originate more than 300 years ago, when Newton and Huygens were still alive and have continues until about one century ago. Nowadays, the idea of dual nature (wave-particle) of light is widely accepted in the scientific circles. As stated earlier, we call "photons" the particles of light. However, we use the wave approach to describe the way in which photons propagate in space. We will explain more in detail this dual nature not only of light but also of matter in the following articles.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 19.3.5 Wave Interpretation of Light. There are 5 lessons in this physics tutorial covering The Compton Effect and Pressure of Light, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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