PHOTON THEORY

OF LIGHT
SPEED OF LIGHT

Galileo Galilei
•One of the scientists who tried to
measure the speed of light
• Believed that light have speed
•Designed an experiment to measure the
speed of light
Ole Roemer  

Danish astronomer who made

the first successful estimation of
the speed of light.
Speed of light was estimated to
be m/s .
ELECTROMAGNETIC  
SPECTRUM

-All electromagnetic waves

travel in a vacuum at a constant
speed ofm/s
LIGHT AS A PARTICLE

ISAAC NEWTON
• Noticed that light casted sharp
shadows
• He thought of light as something like
matter
• Formulated the particle theory of light
• Visible light is composed of
submicroscopic particles called
photons.
PHOTON THEORY
The energy of a photon is directly proportional
to the frequency of vibration.

Light with higher frequency has a higher energy

and that with lower frequency has lower energy.
E= hf  

where f is the frequency of light

and h is Planck’s constant equal to

PHOTONS

• These are elementary particles of light

that have properties of a wave.
SOME PROPERTIES OF  
PHOTONS
* They move at a constant speed of m/s
* They are massless
* They carry energy and momentum
* They have no charge like a neutron
VARIOUS
LIGHT
PHENOMENA
 1. A rainbow is an arc or circle that
exhibits, in concentric bands, the
colors of the spectrum and that is
formed opposite the sun by the
prismatic refraction and reflection of
its rays in raindrops, spray, or mist.
The appearance of a rainbow depends
on the angle at which the sun's rays
are refracted (that is, bent) and
reflected within the drops of water
2. A Sun halo is caused by the
refraction, reflection, and dispersion
of light through ice particles
suspended within thin, wispy, high
altitude cirrus clouds. As light passes
through these hexagon-shaped ice
crystals, it is bent at a 22° angle,
creating a circular halo around the
Sun.
3. Sun dogs are known as
parhelion, halos, or "mock suns."
They are optical effects caused
by the refraction of sunlight by
ice crystals in the atmosphere,
which results in what can appear
to be two rainbows on either
side of the sun.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF
SOME SCIENTISTS TO
OUR UNDERSTANDING
OF ELECTRICITY AND
MAGNETISM
1. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
-arrived at an understanding of
the nature of electric charges
and introduced the terms
positive and negative charges.
2. CHARLES COULOMB
-proposed the Coulomb’s Law
of Electrostatics which states
that “the force between two
point charges is directly
proportional to the product of
magnitude of their charges and
inversely proportional to the
3. HANS CHRISTIAN OERSTED -
discovered that a magnetic field
could be produced by an electric
current which suggests that a
magnetic field is due to the
presence of electric current.
4. ANDRE MARIE AMPERE- reported
that two current-carrying wires exert
forces on one another. If the
currents in the two wires are in the
same direction, the wires attract
each other. When the currents in
the two wires are in opposite
directions, the two wires repel each
other.
5. JEAN BAPTISTE BIOT and
FELIX SAVART- They arrived at a
mathematical expression that
gives the magnetic field at some
points in space in terms of the
current that produces the field.
6. MICHAEL FARADAY
-Discovered the phenomenon of
electromagnetic induction. He
suggested the possibility that
current in one wire may be able to
produce current in another wire. He
was able to induce current and is
now called Faraday’s law of
electromagnetic induction.
7. HEINRICH HERTZ
-invented an apparatus that could
produce and detect electromagnetic
waves with frequency outside the
range of visible light.
Scattering of light- phenomenon
that occurs when light is absorbed
and radiated by particles in the air
which are about the size of gas
molecules.
Diffraction- the bending of light
around corners of obstacles or
barriers.