Huygen's Wave Theory
Category : JEE Main & Advanced
(1) Wave theory of light was given by Christian Huygen. According to this, a luminous body is a source of disturbance in a hypothetical medium ether. This medium pervades all space.
(2) It is assumed to be transparent and having zero inertia. The disturbance from the source is propagated in the form of waves through the space.
(3) The waves carry energy and momentum. Huygen assumed that the waves were longitudinal. Further when polarization was discovered, then to explain it, light waves were, assumed to be transverse in nature by Fresnel.
(4) This theory explains successfully, the phenomenon of interference and diffraction apart from other properties of light.
(5) The Huygen's theory fails to explain photo-electric effect, Compton's effect etc.
(6) The wave theory introduces the concept of wavefront.
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