how can light be the waves...???

Answer 1

All energy flows in waves...think of looking at hot pavement on a sunny day, you can see the waves of heat rising. Place your hand next to an older TV (not a plasma flatscreen) and turn it on. You will feel the static electrical field...this field is waves of energy too. X rays, microwaves, radio waves are all waves of energy that travel across space/the atmosphere. Light is just another type of energy.

Light is actually very unique, it is waves AND particles...or techinically waves OF particles. Light is energy, and therefore travels in waves. The particle part of light is photons. When photons hit plants they trigger photosynthesis, when they hit us, they cause our bodies to absorb vitamin D...etc.

So light is waves of particles. If you could see light waves it would look like dust floating along inthe wind, or like the locusts on The Mummy, just undulating waves of small "bits".

These waves can be blocked (that's what a shadow is) or bent, or warped, or redirected (like in a mirror). They can also be split or scattered (like a prism separates white light into a rainbow).

When light is split (with a prism) you can see all the different wavelengths from Red to Violet (each colour has it's own wavelength that can be measured). When you put them back together you get white light again.

Answer 2

Light quanta, called photons, are modeled as little packets of energy having frequency f...check this out:

"The basic equation that specifies the energy of a photon is given generally as:

E = hf = hc/nL

In this expression:

E = energy of the photon
h = Planck's Constant (= 6.62554±0.00015 × 10-27 erg·seconds)
f = The frequency of the wave
c = The velocity of light in open space
n = The index of refraction of the medium (n = 1 for open space)
L = The wavelength of the wave

Planck's Constant can also be expressed as approximately 6.626 × 10-34 joule·seconds or 4.135 × 10-15 eV·seconds." [See source.]

Thus, light can be treated as a particle, the photon, or as a wave, the packets of wave energy.

There is also a second kind of wave, which I call the wave front. In this wave, the photons are traveling at the speed of light from a source to an observer. It's like the waves on the ocean. The water is made up of molecules, but they travel in packs in the form of waves. Similarly, the photons travel in packs that make up the translational waves of light.

Answer 3

This is a paradox and no unquestionable soultion yet. Scientists are convinced it is both. The only experiment that convinces them the light is a wave is the classic double slit experiment. But there are other argumements against wave theory. In my opinion it can not be a wave simply because waves need a medium to propagate.

Answer 4

It will present itself as waves for some interactions and as particles for other. It is just the nature of the beast, a dual one.