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Which of the following arguments were used to prove that light behaves as a wave?

User Ben
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Final answer:

Historical experiments such as Thomas Young's double-slit experiment and additional studies by Fresnel, Foucault, and Maxwell definitively demonstrated that light behaves as a wave, showing interference, diffraction, and properties of electromagnetic waves.

Step-by-step explanation:

The arguments used to prove that light behaves as a wave are deeply rooted in historical scientific experiments. One of the most significant pieces of evidence came from Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment conducted in 1801, which showed that light exhibited interference patterns, a characteristic behavior of waves.

The interference created a pattern of bright and dark fringes when light passed through two narrow slits and demonstrated wave-like addition and cancellation.

Other contributors, like Augustin Fresnel with his experiments on interference and diffraction, and Jean Foucault with measurements of the speed of light, provided additional evidence supporting the wave theory of light. James Clerk Maxwell's work consolidating light as an electromagnetic wave added further to this theory, showing light could exhibit a range of wavelengths and frequencies characteristic of waves.

All these experiments countered the previous corpuscular theory of light, supported by Isaac Newton, and established the wave nature of light until the discovery of photons introduced the concept of wave-particle duality.

Your complete question is: Which of the following arguments were used to prove that light behaves as a wave?

User Phil Haselden
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