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Word Gems 

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Quantum Mechanics

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Light’s wave-particle debate began in earnest in the late 1600s. The two contending positions were led by Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695) and Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727).

In his 1690 work Traite de Lumiere, Huygens posited that light is a wave.

Newton disagreed. His research with prisms led him to believe that light is a stream of colored “corpuscles” – his term for particles. This interpretation of light was published in Opticks, 1704.

There was good evidence to support both views.

However, for many decades to come, Newton’s declaration of light-as-particle dominated science. As we discussed in an earlier article, Newton’s prestige bordered on godlike, and so his determination was taken as conclusive.

Light-as-particle held the high ground for 100 years – until Thomas Young offered startling new findings which ignited the debate all over again.