Huygens’ Wave Theory
Huygens’ wave theory of light is a fundamental concept in wave optics that explains the behavior of light as a wave motion. According to Huygens’ principle, every point in a wavefront is a source of wavelets, and these wavelets combine to produce a new wavefront that propagates through the transmission medium.
Huygens’ wave theory can explain various phenomena such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference of light. However, Huygens’ wave theory also has some limitations. Which include:
- Huygens’ wave theory cannot explain the photoelectric effect. This phenomenon can only be explained by the particle nature of light.
- The polarization of light is also one of the phenomena that Huygen’s wave theory failed to explain.
- The theory was able to explain some aspects of diffraction. Still, it could not explain it fully as Newton’s corpuscular theory does.
- It could not explain the wave-particle duality of light, which is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics.
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Wave Optics
Wave optics is a branch of physics that studies various phenomena such as interference, diffraction, and polarization. It involves the behavior of light and its interaction with different mediums, leading to studying wavefronts, waves normal, coherent and incoherent sources, and other related concepts.
In this article, we will have a comprehensive study of Wave Optics, including its theories, concepts, and more.
Table of Content
- What is Wave Optics?
- Wave Optic Theories
- Wavefront and Wave Normal
- Coherent and Incoherent Sources
- Wave Optics Formulas
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