Thomas Young. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 19, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Young_(scientist)#Vision_and_colour_theory

Thomas Young Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 19, 2011, from Biography Base: http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Young_Thomas.html

Albert Einstein. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 20, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Thomas Young. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 20, 2011, from Edublogs.com: http://tanishadasmunshi.edublogs.org/

Wave-particle duality. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 20, 2011, from Simple English Wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality

Wave-particle duality. (n.d.). Retrieved 20 10, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality

Light 1. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 20, 2011, from Visionlearning: http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=132

Dr Quantum – Double Slit Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 15, 2011, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc

Jones, A. Z. (n.d.). Young’s Double Slit Experiment. Retrieved 10 10, 2011, from About.com: http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/doubleslit.htm

Lesson 58: Young’s Double Slit Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 13, 2011, from StudyPhysics: http://www.studyphysics.ca/newnotes/20/unit04_light/chp1719_light/lesson58.htm

Wilson, B. (2011, October 20th). Wave-particle duality theory. (A. Robinson, Interviewer)

Today at the FISH convention I ran into none other than Albert Einstein , who I have been told is a great mind of his time. We got talking and the conversation fell onto my Light is waves theory and he told me something really interesting, that in 2011 it is commonly accepted that every particle exhibits both wave and particle properties. This surprised me greatly, as I thought “Young’s Experiment” would be the final say in the matter. I asked Albert to explain it to me and this is what he said:

The wave particle duality theory states that all light and matter is somehow both a wave and a particle and that so many experiments have been carried out on so many different materials that this is now the commonly accepted theory. This was first proven when an experiment was done using film that was unusually sensitive to light to record results. The “Young’s Experiment” was then set up and conducted on varying degrees of light brightness.

On the highest setting, light behaved as a wave, with the interference pattern emerging, but when the scientist made the light source as dim as possible only little dots formed where the holes were, therefore light was acting as a particle, but if left alone long enough that would slowly turn into a interference pattern. So somehow light was being both a wave and a particle.

This was very intriguing and something to ponder in the later years of my life. I am very proud that my experiment not only proved that light is a wave, but also helped prove that light is not only a wave, but also a particle.

One of the theories that I am going to explain is the Young-Helholtz theory, whereby white light is actually a composition of the colors of the visible spectrum. We can see that this is true when we refract light through a prism and it splits into the colors of the visible spectrum. My theory states that in the eye, there are three receptors that receive the three primary colors, red, green or blue, and that when combined they create white light. This is shown in the experiment if you inverse what happened in the experiment.

AIM: To prove that white light is made up of the visible color spectrum.

HYPOTHESIS: That when the light beam is refracted through the prism and rainbow color spectrum will be shown on the paper, proving that white light is made up of the visible spectrum.

MATERIALS:

• Light Box
• Power Box
• Whitepaper
• Triangular Prism
• Camera
• Single Slit card

1. Set up light box on white paper and power box set on 8 volts
2. Slot the single slit card into the light box and turn it on
3. Position the prism in front of the light beam and rotate until the refracted light forms a color spectrum
4. Record with Camera

RESULTS:

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion we can safely infer from these results that white light, as seen in the picture can refract and disperse to form a color spectrum, has all the visible colors in it, and when your eye gets all of these colors, or even just the three primary ones, red, green and blue, that your eye reads that as white.

I saw another experiment at the FISH convention that interested me, because it concerned the vision work I did, in the sense of the focusing of the eye on objects at different distances.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between concave and convex lenses and their focus points.

HYPOTHESIS: That concave lenses will have a focus point in front of the lenses that will act in a similar way to an eye, and a convex lense will make a focus point that is not actually there.

MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT:

• Light Box
• Power Box
• 4 slit card
• Convex Lens
• Concave Lens
• Plain White Paper
• Camera

So like I wrote about early, the double slit experiment that i conducted is now called “Young’s Experiment” and here I have a lab report so that you can know what it is all about. The double slit experiment shows the light is in waves, or at least has the properties of waves, by showing the interference the light has with itself creating lots of bars of light instead of just 2 as the experiment set out would suggest.

Double Slit Experiment

AIM: To investigate the possibility that light may not travel particles but waves instead.

HYPOTHESIS: That if light does travel in waves then ,even though the light is coming out of two separate slits, the wave effect will cause interference with each other and create many bars of varying strength on the wall I project it on.

EQUIPMENT/MATERIALS:

– Light box

– Power Box

– Card with double slits in it

– White wall/ paper

– Camera to record results

METHOD:

1. Set up equipment with double slit card inserted into the light box and that whole set up facing a blank white surface
2. Turn Light Box on with 8 volts on the power box
3. observe results and record with camera

OBSERVATIONS

Conclusion

I conclude that light does travel in waves as you can clearly see the interference bars that are being created by the interference of the other light rays. This means that the theory that light travels in particles is disproved by my theory. This phenomenon is explained by the diagram above on the right showing how the waves interfere and the bars of light come from the parts of the waves that cross over the most.

My name is Thomas Young; I was born on June 13th, 1773 and was the eldest of 10 children in my family.

Over my lifetime I have made notable scientific achievements in the fields of energy, language, Egyptology, solid mechanics, physiology and musical harmony. Although the contributions I have made in vision and light will be most relevant for where I will be going soon. I will be attending the FISH convention where I will meet other notable scientists, and discuss the new theories of 2011 and with scientists from before and after my time.

The experiment and theory I am most famous for however is my double slit experiment proving that light is actually a wave, although I hear the experiment is now called “Young’s Experiment” from the correspondence with the FISH receptionists, which is quite impressive if I do say so myself. I will further explain “Young’s Experiment” in further posts as well as various other experiments that may relate to my vision theories and other experiments about reflection, refraction and optics that I find interesting.

A year in the life of a light scientist

Task : Students are to create a blog (www.edublogs.org) taking on the identity of one historical scientist who discovered a theory about light (see suggested list of scientist at bottom of the page).

The blog should take the form of a scientific journal and explain the development of your theories over a period of time (e.g. over the period of a year with monthly entries).

What to write about :

This blog journal should include, but is not limited to the following:

• Discussions you have had with other scientists of that time, including alternative ideas that may be different your own;
• Descriptions/explanations of experiments that were conducted at the time the scientist was alive You may use downloaded diagrams to help explain things. ***Remember to reference these sources properly;
• Plans and pictures of experiments you choose with explanations that support/don’t support your theories. (You should include actual experiments that you perform in class during the unit). At a minimum-1 refraction, 1 reflection, 1optics experiment (total of 3). (Be sure to use the EPI report format for each of your experiment write-ups)

Please note :

• use scientific terminology correctly
• make sure you refer to the marking rubric as a guide before you start and as you work
• You will be assessed on how well you communicate on your blog (Criterion B) and the quality of the experiments you design (Criterion D)