Home > Science Experiments > Properties of Light - Making waves

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Making waves

In 1801, Thomas Young, a London doctor, developed a theory that light traveled in waves and presented it to the Royal Society, a prestigious group of scientists. Christian Huygens of Holland had suggested

the presence of light waves in his book published in 1690, but Young would go on to prove it with his experiments in 1803.

Young used a screen with one slit. In front of that, he placed another screen with two side-by-side slits, and watched how sunlight passed through. What he saw was bands of color fanning out and meeting each other on the other side. Young realized these bands of color called interference fringesBands of color that fan out around an object. could be made only by waves of light. Up to that time it was thought that there was no form to light and that it existed everywhere. Young's experiment also showed

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Experiments with a shutter
3. Making waves
4. It glows in the dark
5. Project 1 - Looking for the Glow: Which objects glow under black light?
6. Project 2 - Refraction and Defraction: Making a rainbow
7. Design Your Own Experiment