SAPKOTA AMRIT – 17012786

1) What evidence is there that light is a wave?

References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlBgvHzppKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U6YamvF7BE

We can consider light as a wave because it satisfies the primary characteristics of waves i.e.
reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference. Although refraction and reflection can be
observed even in particles, but waves have tendency of diffraction as proved by the Young’s
experiment. In this experiment light is passed via narrow hole in a silt then it fails passing
directly without forming any diffraction which underpins light to be considered as a wave
particle. In addition, light also has frequency, magnitude and wavelength that are used to
quantize and conceptualize nature of wave.
Another evidence to consider light as a wave is that unlike particle collision of light waves do not
alters the direction of the light. And the velocity of light differs during propagation from one
medium to another which is one of the properties of wave.

2) What evidence is there that light is a particle?

The particle behavior of light is supported by the Einstein photoelectric effect where light
comprised of particles can accommodate energy within itself which is known as photons.
On the other hand, the Young’s silt experiment also supports the particle nature of light because
of the resultant interference pattern of bright and dark bands formed on screen.

3) Find a YouTube video that presents a biography of Michael Faraday. You can use your own or
one of the videos suggested here. Tell me which video you decide to use.

References: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_3Um3a65s

Michael Faraday was a British physicist and chemist who greatly contributed to the scientific
field of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Faraday was born in south London to a poor
family and he only received a basic education. When he was 14 he became an apprentice to a
local book binding business and spent most of the next decade educating himself through the
books he found in the shop. He was especially interested in scientific subjects. In 1812 after his
apprenticeship had ended, he attended four lectures by the British chemist Humphry Davy.
Faraday took notes of the lectures and sent them to Davy in the form of a book and Davy
subsequently appointed Faraday as his secretary and was later made chemical assistant at the
Royal Institution. Faraday accompanied Davy as his valet on an 18-month European tour and
then returned to the Royal Institute. In 1820s, he published his work on electromagnetic
rotation which was the principle behind the electric motor and in 1831 he discovered
electromagnetic induction which is the founding principle of electric generator and the electric
 transformer. He later used this principle to construct the electric dynamo which was the early
model of today’s electric generator. He dispelled the idea that there divisions and differences
between types of electricity and stated that only one kind of electricity exists. He also developed
the faraday cage, a shield that blocks external electric fields which is now used in various
technologies such as cables microwave ovens and MRI machines. It is also used to protect
sensitive electrical equipment from lightening strikes. Faraday was later made scientific adviser
to Trinity House and professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woollett England.
He died in 1867, aged 75 and is commemorated in Westminster Abbey with a plaque near Isaac
Newton’s tomb.

4) Find a YouTube video describing the relationship between electricity and magnetism. You can
use your own or one of the videos suggested here. Tell me which video you decide to use.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2yQYwlDkYI

The relationship between electricity and magnetism can be defined by two physical phenomena
i.e., electromagnetism and induction. Electromagnetism describes that electricity generates
magnetic field and induction tells how we can generate electric energy via magnetic field.