Final answer:
Light can be conceptualized as a ray, explaining reflection and refraction, or as a wave, accounting for interference patterns. The wave-particle duality of modern physics combines these views, with light behaving as both particles and waves.
Step-by-step explanation:
Conceptualizations of Light
Light can be conceptualized in two primary ways: as a ray and as a wave. The ancient Greeks were the first to record observations of light behaving as a ray, which travels in straight lines and explains phenomena such as reflection, refraction, and image formation. This is known as geometric optics. On the other hand, the wave model of light, supported by the experiments of Christiaan Huygens and later by Thomas Young, considers light as a wave that can interfere and diffract. James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory further corroborated the wave nature of light, which is consistent with the classical view of electromagnetism.
However, the classical wave theory could not explain certain phenomena like blackbody radiation and the photoelectric effect. These discrepancies led to the development of the concept of wave-particle duality, which combines elements of both the particle and wave models at a fundamental level. This modern understanding of light considers it as both a stream of photons (particle aspect) and an electromagnetic wave, depending on the context in which it is being observed.