Dictionary Definition
light adj
1 of comparatively little physical weight or
density; "a light load"; "magnesium is a light metal--having a
specific gravity of 1.74 at 20 degrees C" [ant: heavy]
2 (used of color) having a relatively small
amount of coloring agent; "light blue"; "light colors such as
pastels"; "a light-colored powder" [syn: light-colored]
[ant: dark]
3 of the military or industry; using (or being)
relatively small or light arms or equipment; "light infantry";
"light cavalry"; "light industry"; "light weapons" [ant: heavy]
4 not great in degree or quantity or number; "a
light sentence"; "a light accent"; "casualties were light"; "light
snow was falling"; "light misty rain"; "light smoke from the
chimney" [ant: heavy]
5 psychologically light; especially free from
sadness or troubles; "a light heart" [ant: heavy]
6 characterized by or emitting light; "a room
that is light when the shutters are open"; "the inside of the house
was airy and light" [ant: dark]
7 used of vowels or syllables; pronounced with
little or no stress; "a syllable that ends in a short vowel is a
light syllable"; "a weak stress on the second syllable" [syn:
unaccented, weak]
8 easily assimilated in the alimentary canal; not
rich or heavily seasoned; "a light diet"
10 (of sound or color) free from anything that
dulls or dims; "efforts to obtain a clean bass in orchestral
recordings"; "clear laughter like a waterfall"; "clear reds and
blues"; "a light lilting voice like a silver bell" [syn: clean, clear, unclouded]
11 moving easily and quickly; nimble; "the dancer
was light and graceful"; "a lightsome buoyant step"; "walked with a
light tripping step" [syn: lightsome, tripping]
12 demanding little effort; not burdensome;
"light housework"; "light exercise"
13 of little intensity or power or force; "the
light touch of her fingers"; "a light breeze" [ant: heavy]
14 (physics, chemistry) not having atomic weight
greater than average; "light water is ordinary water" [ant:
heavy]
15 weak and likely to lose consciousness;
"suddenly felt faint from the pain"; "was sick and faint from
hunger"; "felt light in the head"; "a swooning fit"; "light-headed
with wine"; "light-headed from lack of sleep" [syn: faint, swooning, light-headed,
lightheaded]
16 very thin and insubstantial; "thin paper";
"flimsy voile"; "light summer dresses" [syn: flimsy]
17 marked by temperance in indulgence;
"abstemious meals"; "a light eater"; "a light smoker"; "ate a light
supper" [syn: abstemious, light(a)]
18 less than the correct or legal or full amount
often deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar";
"regularly gives short weight" [syn: scant(p), short]
19 having little importance; "losing his job was
no light matter"
20 intended primarily as entertainment; not
serious or profound; "light verse"; "a light comedy"
21 silly or trivial; "idle pleasure"; "light
banter"; "light idle chatter" [syn: idle]
22 having a spongy or flaky texture;
well-leavened; "light pastries"
23 designed for ease of movement or to carry
little weight; "light aircraft"; "a light truck"
24 having relatively few calories; "diet cola";
"light (or lite) beer"; "lite (or light) mayonnaise"; "a low-cal
diet" [syn: lite, low-cal]
25 (of sleep) easily disturbed; "in a light
doze"; "a light sleeper"; "a restless wakeful night" [syn: wakeful]
26 casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior;
"her easy virtue"; "he was told to avoid loose (or light) women";
"wanton behavior" [syn: easy, loose, promiscuous, sluttish, wanton]
Noun
1 (physics) electromagnetic radiation that can
produce a visual sensation; "the light was filtered through a soft
glass window" [syn: visible
light, visible
radiation]
2 any device serving as a source of illumination;
"he stopped the car and turned off the lights" [syn: light
source]
3 a particular perspective or aspect of a
situation; "although he saw it in a different light, he still did
not understand"
4 the quality of being luminous; emitting or
reflecting light; "its luminosity is measured relative to that of
our sun" [syn: luminosity, brightness, brightness
level, luminance,
luminousness]
5 an illuminated area; "he stepped into the
light"
6 a condition of spiritual awareness; divine
illumination; "follow God's light" [syn: illumination]
7 the visual effect of illumination on objects or
scenes as created in pictures; "he could paint the lightest light
and the darkest dark" [syn: lightness]
8 a person regarded very fondly; "the light of my
life"
9 mental understanding as an enlightening
experience; "he finally saw the light"; "can you shed light on this
problem?"
10 having abundant light or illumination; "they
played as long as it was light"; "as long as the lighting was good"
[syn: lighting] [ant:
dark]
11 public awareness; "it brought the scandal to
light"
13 a divine presence believed by Quakers to
enlighten and guide the soul [syn: Inner Light,
Light
Within, Christ
Within]
14 a visual warning signal; "they saw the light
of the beacon"; "there was a light at every corner"
15 a device for lighting or igniting fuel or
charges or fires; "do you have a light?" [syn: lighter, igniter, ignitor] adv : with few burdens;
"experienced travellers travel light" [syn: lightly]
Verb
1 make lighter or brighter; "This lamp lightens
the room a bit" [syn: illume, illumine, light up,
illuminate]
4 cause to start burning; subject to fire or
great heat; "Great heat can ignite almost any dry matter"; "Light a
cigarette" [syn: ignite]
[ant: snuff
out]
5 fall to somebody by assignment or lot; "The
task fell to me"; "It fell to me to notify the parents of the
victims" [syn: fall]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- , /laɪt/, /laIt/
- Rhymes: -aɪt
Homophones
Etymology 1
līhtan.Verb
- To start a fire.
- To illuminate.
Usage notes
In the UK, as a predicative adjective, lighted is more usual than lit. So, for example, "a lighted candle" is more usual than "a lit candle". Conversely, in the US, lit is more common.Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
to start a fire
- Afrikaans: aansteek
- Armenian: վառել (vaŕel)
- Bulgarian: запалвам(zapalvam), паля (palia)
- Catalan: encendre
- Chinese: 點火, 点火 (diǎnhuǒ)
- Croatian: upaliti, zapaliti
- Czech: zapálit
- Danish: antænde, tænde
- Dutch: aansteken
- Finnish: sytyttää palamaan
- French: allumer
- German: anzünden, anstecken, anmachen
- Greek: ανάβω (anavo)
- Hebrew: ,
- Hungarian: gyújt, meggyújt
- Icelandic: kveikja
- Italian: accendere
- Japanese: 引火する (いんかする, inka-suru) / 点火する (てんかする, tenka-suru)
- Korean: 불붙이다 (bul-butIda)
- Kurdish:
- Latvian: aizdedzināt
- Malayalam: കത്തിയ്ക്കുക (kathiykkuka)
- Norwegian: tenne
- Old English: ælan
- Polish: rozpalić, zapalić
- Portuguese: acender
- Russian: зажигать (zažigát’), зажечь (zažéč’), разжигать (razžigát’), разжечь (razžéč’)
- Slovak: zapáliť, zažať
- Slovene: prižgati
- Spanish: prender, encender
- Swedish: tända
- Telugu: వెలిగించు (veligiMcu), అంటించు (aMTiMcu)
- Turkish: yakmak
- Ukrainian: запа́лювати, запали́ти
- Vietnamese: đốt, thắp, châm, nhóm
- Welsh: cynnau
to illuminate
- Afrikaans: skyn, belig
- Armenian: լուսավորել (lusavorel)
- Bulgarian: осветявам
- Catalan: encendre, il·luminar
- Chinese: 照明 (zhàomíng)
- Croatian: osvijetliti
- Czech: osvětlit, osvítit
- Danish: belyse, oplyse
- Dutch: lichten, bijlichten
- Finnish: valaista
- French: allumer, illuminer
- German: beleuchten, anstrahlen
- Greek: φωτίζω
- Hebrew:
- Hungarian: világít
- Icelandic: lýsa
- Italian: illuminare
- Japanese: 照らす (てらす, terasu)
- Korean: 불켜다 (bul-kyeoda), 밝히다 (balkhida), 비추다 (bichuda)
- Kurdish:
- Kurmanji: ron kirin
- Latin: illuminare
- Latvian: apgaismot
- Malayalam: പ്രകാശിയ്ക്കുക (prakaaSiykkuka)
- Norwegian: opplyse
- Polish: oświetlić, iluminować
- Portuguese: iluminar
- Russian: освещать (osveščát’), осветить (osvetít’)
- Slovak: svietiť
- Slovene: osvetliti
- Spanish: iluminar
- Swedish: belysa
- Telugu: ప్రకాశింపజేయు (prakaaSiMpajEyu)
- Turkish: aydınlatmak
- Vietnamese: chiếu sáng, rọi sáng, soi sáng
- Welsh: goleuo
- ttbc Chinese Characters: 焌
- ttbc Guarani: myendy (1,2)
- ttbc Hindi: (jalana)
- ttbc Ido: acendar
- ttbc Indonesian: menyalakan (1), menerangi (2)
- ttbc Interlingua: accender (1), illuminar (2)
- ttbc Romanian: aprinde (1), ilumina (2)
- Tupinambá: moendy (1,2)
- ttbc Tagalog: ilaw
Etymology 2
lēoht. Cognate with Dutch licht, German Licht.Noun
- The natural medium emanating from the sun and other very hot
sources (now recognised as electromagnetic radiation with a
wavelength of 400-750 nm), within which vision is possible.
- As you can see, this spacious dining-room gets a lot of light in the mornings.
- A source of illumination.
- Put that light out!
- Spiritual or mental illumination; enlightenment, useful
information.
- Can you throw any light on this problem?
- A notable person within a specific field or discipline.
- Picasso was one of the leading lights of the cubist movement.
- A point of view, or aspect from which a concept, person or
thing is regarded.
- I'm really seeing you in a different light today.
- A flame or something
used to create fire.
- Hey, buddy, you got a light?
- A window, or space for a window in architecture
- This facade has eight south-facing lights.
- The series of
squares reserved for the
answer to a crossword clue
- The average length of a light on a 15x15 grid is 7 or 8.
Synonyms
- (electromagnetic wave perceived by the eye) visible light
Translations
electromagnetic wave
- Albanian: dritë
- Arabic: نور (nur), ضوء (Dau')
- Armenian: լույս (luys)
- Bulgarian: светлина
- Catalan: llum
- Chinese: 光 (guāng)
- Croatian: svjetlo
- Czech: světlo
- Danish: lys
- Dutch: licht
- Esperanto: lumo
- Estonian: valgus
- Finnish: valo
- French: lumière
- German: Licht
- Greek: φως (fos)
- Hawaiian: lama, ao
- Hebrew: ,
- Hungarian: fény
- Icelandic: ljós
- Ilocano: silaw
- Indonesian: cahaya
- Irish: solas
- Italian: luce
- Japanese: 光 (ひかり, hikari)
- Korean: 빛 (bich, bit)
- Kurdish:
- Latin: lux, lumen
- Latvian: gaisma
- Lithuanian: šviesa
- Luxembourgish: Liicht
- Malay: cahaya
- Malayalam: വെളിച്ചം (veLicham), പ്രകാശം (prakaaSam)
- Maori: rama
- Norwegian: lys
- Old Prussian: swāikstan
- Persian: نور (nur)
- Polish: światło
- Portuguese: luz
- Russian: свет
- Scots: licht
- Slovak: svetlo
- Slovene: svetloba
- Spanish: luz
- Sumerian: nuru, immaru
- Swedish: ljus
- Tagalog: ilaw
- Telugu: కాంతి (kaaMti), వెలుతురు (veluturu)
- Turkish: ışık
- Ukrainian: світло (uk)
- Vietnamese: ánh sáng, ánh
- Welsh: golau, goleuni
a source of light
- Armenian: ճրագ (črag)
- Catalan: llum
- Czech: světlo
- Danish: lys , lyskilde
- Dutch: licht
- Finnish: valo
- German: Lichtquelle
- Greek: φως (fos)
- Hebrew:
- Icelandic: ljós
- Irish: solas
- Italian: luce
- Korean: 불 (bur, bul)
- Kurdish:
- Norwegian: lys
- Old Prussian: likti
- Polish: źródło światła
- Portuguese: luz
- Russian: свет
- Scots: licht
- Slovak: osvetlenie
- Slovene: luč
- Spanish: luz
- Swedish: ljus
- Telugu: జ్యోతి (jyOti)
- Turkish: ışık
- Vietnamese: đèn
- Welsh: golau, goleuni
a spiritual truth
a point of view
a flame or something used to create fire.
- ttbc Arabic: (nur)
- ttbc Croatian: svjetlo
- ttbc Guarani: endy (t-)
- ttbc Hindi: (prakash)
- ttbc Ido: lumo
- ttbc Indonesian: cahaya
- ttbc Interlingua: lumine
- ttbc Kurdish: ronahî, ronayî
- ttbc Lithuanian: šviesa (1); šviestuvas (2)
- ttbc Romanian: lumină
- ttbc Turkish: ışık
- Tupinambá: endy (t-)
Derived terms
- bring to light
- come to light
- hide one's light under a bushel
- light at the end of the tunnel
- lights, camera, action!
- see the light
Etymology 3
lēoht. Cognate with Dutch licht, German licht.Adjective
en-adj erSynonyms
Translations
having light
pale in colour
- Afrikaans: lig, bleek gesig (pale face), blas vel (light complexion, pale skin)
- Armenian: սփրթնած (sp‘rt‘nats)
- Catalan: clar
- Czech: světlý
- Danish: lys, bleg
- Dutch: licht
- Finnish: vaalea
- French: léger
- German: hell
- Greek: αχνός, ανοιχτός
- Hebrew: ,
- Hungarian: világos
- Icelandic: fölur , föl , fölt
- Italian: chiaro chiara
- Kurdish:
- Latvian: gaišs , gaiša
- Norwegian: lys, blek
- Polish: jasny , jasna , jasne
- Portuguese: clara, claro
- Russian: бледный, светлый
- Slovene: svetel , svetla , svetlo
- Swedish: blek, ljus
- Turkish: soluk
- Vietnamese: nhạt
- Welsh: golau
coffee: served with extra milk or cream
Derived terms
Adjective
en-adj er- Of low weight; not heavy.
- My bag was much lighter once I had dropped off the books.
- Lightly-built; designed for speed or small loads.
- We took a light aircraft down to the city.
- Gentle; having little force or momentum.
- This artist clearly had a light, flowing touch.
- Low in fat, calories,
alcohol, salt, etc.
- This light beer still gets you drunk if you have enough of it.
- Unimportant, trivial, having little value or
significance.
- I made some light comment, and we moved on.
Synonyms
- lite (3)
Derived terms
Translations
of low weight
- Armenian: թեթև (t‘et‘ev)
- Catalan: lleuger
- Chinese: 輕, 轻 (qīng)
- Danish: let
- Dutch: licht
- Finnish: kevyt
- French: léger
- German: leicht
- Hebrew: ,
- Hungarian: könnyű
- Icelandic: léttur , létt
- Italian: leggero
- Japanese: 軽い (かるい, karui)
- Korean: 가볍다 (gabyeopda)
- Kurdish:
- Latin: levis
- Latvian: viegls , viegla
- Norwegian: lett
- Old Prussian: lāngus
- Polish: lekki , lekka , lekkie
- Portuguese: leve
- Russian: лёгкий (ljóxkij)
- Slovene: lahek , lahka , lahko
- Spanish: ligero, liviano (formal)
- Swedish: lätt
- Turkish: hafif
- Ukrainian: легкий (leɦkýj) , легка (leɦká) , легке (leɦké)
- Vietnamese: nhẹ, nhẹ nhàng
- Welsh: ysgafn
lightly-built
- Hebrew:
- Vietnamese: nhẹ, nhanh nhẹn (indicates speed due to lightness)
low in fat, calories, alcohol, salt, etc.
- Catalan: lleuger, light
- Danish: kalorielet
- Dutch: licht
- Finnish: kevyt- (in compounds)
- French: léger
- German: leicht
- Hebrew: , , ,
- Icelandic: fitulítill , fituskertur , fitusnauður
- Italian: leggero leggera
- Norwegian: lett-
- Polish: lekki , lekka , lekkie
- Spanish: ligero, ligera
- Swedish: lätt-
- Turkish: hafif
- Vietnamese: nhẹ (low in alcohol)
- Welsh: ysgafn
of little significance
- ttbc Crimean Tatar: yarıq
- ttbc Guarani: vevúi
- ttbc Ido: lejera
- ttbc Indonesian: ringan
- ttbc Interlingua: leve, legier
- ttbc Japanese: 軽い (かるい, karui)
- ttbc Javanese: enteng
- ttbc Lithuanian: lengvas (1); šviesus (2)
- ttbc Romanian: uşor uşoară
- Tupinambá: bebuîa
Noun
- A stone that is not thrown hard enough
Verb
Derived terms
Translations
to alight
- Vietnamese: xuống
Extensive Definition
Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic
radiation of a wavelength that is visible to
the human eye (about 400–700
nm). In a scientific context,
the word light is sometimes used to refer to the entire electromagnetic
spectrum. Moreover, in optics, the term "visible light"
refers to electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of ~300 nm
(near UV) through
~1400 nm (near
infrared). Light is composed of elementary
particles called photons.
Three primary properties of light are:
- Intensity;
- Frequency or wavelength and;
- Polarization.
Light can exhibit properties of both waves and particles.
This property is referred to as
wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research
area in modern physics.
Speed of light
The speed of light in a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 m/s (about 186,282.397 miles per second). The speed of light depends upon the medium in which it is traveling, and the speed will be lower in a transparent medium. Although commonly called the "velocity of light", technically the word velocity is a vector quantity, having both magnitude and direction. Speed refers only to the magnitude of the velocity vector. This fixed definition of the speed of light is a result of the modern attempt, in physics, to define the basic unit of length in terms of the speed of light, rather than defining the speed of light in terms of a length.Different physicists have attempted to measure
the speed of light throughout history. Galileo
attempted to measure the speed of light in the seventeenth century.
A good early experiment to measure the speed of light was conducted
by Ole
Rømer, a Danish physicist, in 1676. Using a telescope, Ole
observed the motions of Jupiter and one of
its moons,
Io.
Noting discrepancies in the apparent period of Io's orbit, Rømer
calculated that light takes about 18 minutes to traverse the
diameter of Earth's orbit. Unfortunately, this was not a value that
was known at that time. If Ole had known the diameter of the
earth's orbit, he would have calculated a speed of
227,000,000 m/s.
Another, more accurate, measurement of the speed
of light was performed in Europe by Hippolyte
Fizeau in 1849. Fizeau directed
a beam of light at a mirror several kilometers away. A rotating cog
wheel was placed in the path of the light beam as it traveled from
the source, to the mirror and then returned to its origin. Fizeau
found that at a certain rate of rotation, the beam would pass
through one gap in the wheel on the way out and the next gap on the
way back. Knowing the distance to the mirror, the number of teeth
on the wheel, and the rate of rotation, Fizeau was able to
calculate the speed of light as 313,000,000 m/s.
Léon
Foucault used an experiment which used rotating mirrors to
obtain a value of 298,000,000 m/s in 1862. Albert
A. Michelson conducted experiments on the speed of light from
1877 until his death in 1931. He refined Foucault's methods in 1926
using improved rotating mirrors to measure the time it took light to make a round
trip from Mt. Wilson to Mt. San Antonio in California. The
precise measurements yielded a speed of
299,796,000 m/s.
Some scientists were able to bring light to a
complete standstill by passing it through a Bose-Einstein
Condensate of the element rubidium.
Refraction
Note, n = 1 in a vacuum and n > 1 in a
transparent medium, where n is the index
of refraction.
When a beam of light crosses the boundary between
a vacuum and another medium, or between two different mediums, the
wavelength of the light changes, but the frequency remains
constant. If the beam of light is not orthogonal to the
boundary, the change in wavelength results in a change in the
direction of the beam. This change of direction is known as
refraction.
The refraction quality of lenses is
frequently used to manipulate light in order to change the apparent
size of images. Magnifying
glasses, spectacles,
contact
lenses, microscopes and refracting
telescopes are all examples of this manipulation.
Optics
The study of light and the interaction of light
and matter is termed
optics. The observation
and study of optical
phenomena such as rainbows and the aurora
borealis offer many clues as to the nature of light as well as
much enjoyment.
Light sources
seealso List of light sourcesThere are many
sources of light. The most common light sources are thermal: a
body at a given temperature emits a
characteristic spectrum of black-body
radiation. Examples include sunlight (the radiation emitted
by the chromosphere
of the Sun at
around 6,000 K
peaks in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum),
incandescent
light bulbs (which emit only around 10% of their energy as
visible light and the remainder as infrared), and glowing solid
particles in flames. The
peak of the blackbody spectrum is in the infrared for relatively
cool objects like human beings. As the temperature increases, the
peak shifts to shorter wavelengths, producing first a red glow,
then a white one, and finally a blue color as the peak moves out of
the visible part of the spectrum and into the ultraviolet. These
colors can be seen when metal is heated to "red hot" or "white hot".
The blue color is most commonly seen in a gas flame or
a welder's torch.
Atoms emit and absorb light at characteristic
energies. This produces "emission
lines" in the spectrum of each atom.
Emission can be spontaneous,
as in light-emitting
diodes, gas
discharge lamps (such as neon lamps and
neon
signs, mercury-vapor
lamps, etc.), and flames (light from the hot gas
itself—so, for example, sodium in a gas flame emits
characteristic yellow light). Emission can also be stimulated,
as in a laser or a
microwave maser.
Acceleration of a free charged particle, such as
an electron, can
produce visible radiation: cyclotron
radiation, synchrotron
radiation, and bremsstrahlung radiation
are all examples of this. Particles moving through a medium faster
than the speed of light in that medium can produce visible Cherenkov
radiation.
Certain chemicals produce visible radiation by
chemoluminescence.
In living things, this process is called bioluminescence. For
example, fireflies
produce light by this means, and boats moving through water can
disturb plankton which produce a glowing wake.
Certain substances produce light when they are
illuminated by more energetic radiation, a process known as
fluorescence. This
is used in fluorescent
lights. Some substances emit light slowly after excitation by
more energetic radiation. This is known as phosphorescence.
Phosphorescent materials can also be excited by
bombarding them with subatomic particles. Cathodoluminescence
is one example of this. This mechanism is used in cathode
ray tube televisions.
Certain other mechanisms can produce light:
When the concept of light is intended to include
very-high-energy photons (gamma rays), additional generation
mechanisms include:
- radioactive decay
- particle–antiparticle annihilation
Theories about light
Indian theories
In
ancient India, the philosophical schools of Samkhya and
Vaisheshika,
from around the 6th–5th
century BC, developed theories on light. According to the
Samkhya school, light is one of the five fundamental "subtle"
elements (tanmatra) out of which emerge the gross elements. The
atomicity of these
elements is not specifically mentioned and it appears that they
were actually taken to be continuous.
On the other hand, the Vaisheshika school gives
an atomic
theory of the physical world on the non-atomic ground of
ether,
space and time. (See Indian
atomism.) The basic atoms are those of earth (prthivı),
water (apas), fire (tejas), and air (vayu), that should not be
confused with the ordinary meaning of these terms. These atoms are
taken to form binary molecules that combine further to form larger
molecules. Motion is defined in terms of the movement of the
physical atoms and it appears that it is taken to be
non-instantaneous. Light rays are taken to be a stream of high
velocity of tejas (fire) atoms. The particles of light can exhibit
different characteristics depending on the speed and the
arrangements of the tejas atoms. Around the first century BC, the
Vishnu
Purana correctly refers to sunlight as the "the seven rays
of the sun".
Later in 499, Aryabhata, who
proposed a heliocentric solar system
of gravitation in
his Aryabhatiya,
wrote that the planets and the Moon do not have their
own light but reflect the light of the Sun.
The Indian Buddhists, such as
Dignāga in the
5th
century and Dharmakirti in
the 7th
century, developed a type of atomism that is a philosophy
about reality being composed of atomic entities that are momentary
flashes of light or energy. They viewed light as being an atomic
entity equivalent to energy, similar to the modern concept of
photons, though they also
viewed all matter as being composed of these light/energy
particles.
Greek and Hellenistic theories
In the fifth century BC, Empedocles postulated that everything was composed of four elements; fire, air, earth and water. He believed that Aphrodite made the human eye out of the four elements and that she lit the fire in the eye which shone out from the eye making sight possible. If this were true, then one could see during the night just as well as during the day, so Empedocles postulated an interaction between rays from the eyes and rays from a source such as the sun.In about 300 BC, Euclid wrote Optica,
in which he studied the properties of light. Euclid postulated that
light travelled in straight lines and he described the laws of
reflection and studied them mathematically. He questioned that
sight is the result of a beam from the eye, for he asks how one
sees the stars immediately, if one closes one's eyes, then opens
them at night. Of course if the beam from the eye travels
infinitely fast this is not a problem.
"The light & heat of the sun; these are
composed of minute atoms which, when they are shoved off, lose no
time in shooting right across the interspace of air in the
direction imparted by the shove." - On the nature of the
Universe
Despite being similar to later particle theories,
Lucretius's views were not generally accepted and light was still
theorized as emanating from the eye.
Ptolemy (c.
2nd
century) wrote about the refraction of light, and
developed a theory of vision that objects are seen by rays of light
emanating from the eyes.
Optical theory
The Muslim
scientist Ibn
al-Haytham (c. 965-1040), known as
Alhacen in the West, in his Book of
Optics, developed a broad theory that explained vision,
using geometry and
anatomy, which stated
that each point on an illuminated area or object radiates light
rays in every direction, but that only one ray from each point,
which strikes the eye perpendicularly, can be seen. The other rays
strike at different angles and are not seen. He described the
pinhole
camera and invented the camera
obscura, which produces an inverted image, and used it as an
example to support his argument.http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blphotography.htm
This contradicted Ptolemy's theory of vision that objects are seen
by rays of light emanating from the eyes. Alhacen held light rays
to be streams of minute particles that travelled at a finite speed.
He improved Ptolemy's theory of
the refraction of light, and went on to discover the laws of
refraction.
He also carried out the first experiments on the
dispersion of light into its constituent colors. His major work
Kitab al-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages,
as well his book dealing with the colors of sunset. He dealt at
length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows,
eclipses, the rainbow. He also attempted to explain binocular
vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in
size of the sun and the moon when near the horizon. Because of his
extensive research on optics, Al-Haytham is considered the father
of modern optics.
Al-Haytham also correctly argued that we see
objects because the sun's rays of light, which he believed to be
streams of tiny particles travelling in straight lines, are
reflected from objects into our eyes. He understood that light must
travel at a large but finite velocity, and that refraction is
caused by the velocity being different in different substances. He
also studied spherical and parabolic mirrors, and understood how
refraction by a lens will allow images to be focused and
magnification to take place. He understood mathematically why a
spherical mirror produces aberration.
The 'plenum'
René
Descartes (1596-1650) held that light was a disturbance of the
plenum, the continuous substance of which the universe was
composed. In 1637 he published a theory of the refraction of light that
assumed, incorrectly, that light travelled faster in a denser
medium than in a less dense medium. Descartes arrived at this
conclusion by analogy with the behaviour of sound waves. Although Descartes
was incorrect about the relative speeds, he was correct in assuming
that light behaved like a wave and in concluding that refraction
could be explained by the speed of light in different media. As a
result, Descartes' theory is often regarded as the forerunner of
the wave theory of light.
Particle theory
Pierre
Gassendi (1592-1655), an atomist, proposed a particle theory of
light which was published posthumously in the 1660s. Isaac Newton
studied Gassendi's work at an early age, and preferred his view to
Descartes' theory of the plenum. He stated in his Hypothesis of
Light of 1675 that light was composed of corpuscles (particles of
matter) which were emitted in all directions from a source. One of
Newton's arguments against the wave nature of light was that waves
were known to bend around obstacles, while light travelled only in
straight lines. He did, however, explain the phenomenon of the
diffraction of light
(which had been observed by Francesco
Grimaldi) by allowing that a light particle could create a
localised wave in the aether.
Newton's theory could be used to predict the
reflection
of light, but could only explain refraction by incorrectly
assuming that light accelerated upon entering a denser medium
because the gravitational pull was greater.
Newton published the final version of his theory in his Opticks of 1704. His reputation
helped the particle
theory of light to hold sway during the 18th
century. The particle theory of light led Laplace to argue
that a body could be so massive that light could not escape from
it. In other words it would become what is now called a black hole.
Laplace withdrew his suggestion when the wave theory of light was
firmly established. A translation of his essay appears in The large
scale structure of space-time, by Stephen
Hawking and George
F. R. Ellis.
Wave theory
In the 1660s, Robert Hooke
published a wave theory of
light. Christiaan
Huygens worked out his own wave theory of light in 1678, and
published it in his Treatise on light in 1690. He proposed that
light was emitted in all directions as a series of waves in a
medium called the Luminiferous
ether. As waves are not affected by gravity, it was assumed
that they slowed down upon entering a denser medium.
The wave theory predicted that light waves could
interfere with each other like sound waves (as noted around
1800 by
Thomas
Young), and that light could be polarized. Young showed by
means of a diffraction
experiment that light behaved as waves. He also proposed that
different colors were
caused by different wavelengths of light, and
explained color vision in terms of three-colored receptors in the
eye.
Another supporter of the wave theory was Leonhard
Euler. He argued in Nova theoria lucis et colorum (1746) that diffraction could more
easily be explained by a wave theory.
Later, Augustin-Jean
Fresnel independently worked out his own wave theory of light,
and presented it to the Académie
des Sciences in 1817. Simeon Denis
Poisson added to Fresnel's mathematical work to produce a
convincing argument in favour of the wave theory, helping to
overturn Newton's corpuscular theory.
The weakness of the wave theory was that light
waves, like sound waves, would need a medium for transmission. A
hypothetical substance called the luminiferous
aether was proposed, but its existence was cast into strong
doubt in the late nineteenth century by the Michelson-Morley
experiment.
Newton's corpuscular theory implied that light
would travel faster in a denser medium, while the wave theory of
Huygens and others implied the opposite. At that time, the speed of
light could not be measured accurately enough to decide which
theory was correct. The first to make a sufficiently accurate
measurement was Léon
Foucault, in 1850. His result
supported the wave theory, and the classical particle theory was
finally abandoned.
Electromagnetic theory
In 1845, Michael
Faraday discovered that the angle of polarization of a beam of
light as it passed through a polarizing material could be altered
by a magnetic field, an
effect now known as Faraday
rotation. This was the first evidence that light was related to
electromagnetism.
Faraday proposed in 1847 that light was a high-frequency
electromagnetic vibration, which could propagate even in the
absence of a medium such as the ether.
Faraday's work inspired James
Clerk Maxwell to study electromagnetic radiation and light.
Maxwell discovered that self-propagating electromagnetic waves
would travel through space at a constant speed, which happened to
be equal to the previously measured speed of light. From this,
Maxwell concluded that light was a form of electromagnetic
radiation: he first stated this result in 1862 in On Physical Lines
of Force. In 1873, he published
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, which contained a full
mathematical description of the behaviour of electric and magnetic
fields, still known as Maxwell's
equations. Soon after, Heinrich
Hertz confirmed Maxwell's theory experimentally by generating
and detecting radio waves
in the laboratory, and demonstrating that these waves behaved
exactly like visible light, exhibiting properties such as
reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference. Maxwell's
theory and Hertz's experiments led directly to the development of
modern radio, radar, television, electromagnetic imaging, and
wireless communications.
The special theory of relativity
The wave theory was wildly successful in
explaining nearly all optical and electromagnetic phenomena, and
was a great triumph of nineteenth century physics. By the late
nineteenth century, however, a handful of experimental anomalies
remained that could not be explained by or were in direct conflict
with the wave theory. One of these anomalies involved a controversy
over the speed of light. The constant speed of light predicted by
Maxwell's equations and confirmed by the Michelson-Morley
experiment contradicted the mechanical laws of motion that had been
unchallenged since the time of Galileo,
which stated that all speeds were relative to the speed of the
observer. In 1905, Albert
Einstein resolved this paradox by revising the Galilean model
of space and time to account for the constancy of the speed of
light. Einstein formulated his ideas in his
special theory of relativity, which radically altered
humankind's understanding of space
and time. Einstein also
demonstrated a previously unknown fundamental equivalence
between energy and
mass with his famous
equation
- E = mc^2 \,
where E is energy, m is rest mass, and c is the
speed of
light.
Particle theory revisited
Another experimental anomaly was the photoelectric
effect, by which light striking a metal surface ejected
electrons from the surface, causing an electric
current to flow across an applied voltage. Experimental
measurements demonstrated that the energy of individual ejected
electrons was proportional to the frequency, rather than the
intensity, of the
light. Furthermore, below a certain minimum frequency, which
depended on the particular metal, no current would flow regardless
of the intensity. These observations clearly contradicted the wave
theory, and for years physicists tried in vain to find an
explanation. In 1905, Einstein solved this puzzle as well, this
time by resurrecting the particle theory of light to explain the
observed effect. Because of the preponderance of evidence in favor
of the wave theory, however, Einstein's ideas were met initially by
great skepticism among established physicists. But eventually
Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect would triumph,
and it ultimately formed the basis for
wave–particle duality and much of quantum
mechanics.
Quantum theory
A third anomaly that arose in the late 19th
century involved a contradiction between the wave theory of light
and measurements of the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by thermal
radiators, or so-called black bodies.
Physicists struggled with this problem, which later became known as
the ultraviolet
catastrophe, unsuccessfully for many years. In 1900, Max Planck
developed a new theory of
black-body radiation that explained the observed spectrum
correctly. Planck's theory was based on the idea that black bodies
emit light (and other electromagnetic radiation) only as discrete
bundles or packets of energy. These packets were called
quanta, and the particle
of light was given the name photon, to correspond with other
particles being described around this time, such as the electron and proton. A photon has an energy,
E, proportional to its frequency, f, by
- E = hf = \frac \,\!
where h is Planck's
constant, \lambda is the wavelength and c is the speed of
light. Likewise, the momentum p of a photon is also
proportional to its frequency and inversely proportional to its
wavelength:
- p = = = .
As it originally stood, this theory did not
explain the simultaneous wave- and particle-like natures of light,
though Planck would later work on theories that did. In 1918,
Planck received the Nobel
Prize in Physics for his part in the founding of quantum
theory.
Wave–particle duality
The modern theory that explains the nature of
light includes the notion of
wave–particle duality, described by Albert
Einstein in the early 1900s, based on his study of the photoelectric
effect and Planck's results. Einstein asserted that the energy
of a photon is proportional to its frequency. More generally, the
theory states that everything has both a particle nature and a wave
nature, and various experiments can be done to bring out one or the
other. The particle nature is more easily discerned if an object
has a large mass, and it was not until a bold proposition by
Louis de
Broglie in 1924 that the scientific community realized that
electrons also
exhibited wave–particle duality. The wave nature of electrons was
experimentally demonstrated by Davission and Germer in 1927.
Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work with the
wave–particle duality on photons (especially explaining the
photoelectric effect thereby), and de Broglie followed in 1929 for
his extension to other particles.
Quantum electrodynamics
The quantum mechanical theory of light and
electromagnetic radiation continued to evolve through the 1920's
and 1930's, and culminated with the development during the 1940's
of the theory of quantum
electrodynamics, or QED. This so-called quantum
field theory is among the most comprehensive and experimentally
successful theories ever formulated to explain a set of natural
phenomena. QED was developed primarily by physicists Richard
Feynman, Freeman
Dyson, Julian
Schwinger, and Shin-Ichiro
Tomonaga. Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga shared the 1965
Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions.
Light pressure
Light pushes on objects in its way, just as the
wind would do. This pressure is most easily explainable in particle
theory: photons hit and transfer their momentum. Light pressure can
cause asteroids to spin
faster, acting on their irregular shapes as on the vanes of a
windmill. The
possibility to make solar sails
that would accelerate spaceships in space is also under
investigation.
Although the motion of the Crookes
radiometer was originally attributed to light pressure, this
interpretation is incorrect; the characteristic Crookes rotation is
the result of a partial vacuum. This should not be confused with
the Nichols
radiometer, in which the motion is directly caused by light
pressure.
Spirituality
The sensory perception of light plays a central
role in spirituality (vision,
enlightenment,
darshan, Tabor Light),
and the presence of light as opposed to its absence (darkness) is a common Western
metaphor of good and
evil, knowledge
and ignorance, and
similar concepts.
References
See also
light in Dutch: Licht
light in Dutch Low Saxon: Locht
(straoling)
light in Newari: जः
light in Japanese: 光
light in Neapolitan: Luce
light in Norwegian: Lys
light in Norwegian Nynorsk: Lys
light in Narom: Lumyire
light in Novial: Lume
light in Occitan (post 1500): Lutz
light in Uzbek: Yorugʻlik
light in Polish: Światło
light in Portuguese: Luz
light in Romanian: Lumină
light in Quechua: Achkiy
light in Russian: Свет
light in Albanian: Drita
light in Sicilian: Luci
light in Simple English: Light
light in Slovak: Svetlo
light in Slovenian: Svetloba
light in Serbian: Светлост
light in Finnish: Valo
light in Swedish: Ljus
light in Tamil: ஒளி
light in Telugu: కాంతి
light in Thai: แสง
light in Vietnamese: Ánh sáng
light in Tajik: Нӯр
light in Turkish: Işık
light in Ukrainian: Світло (фізика)
light in Urdu: روشنی
light in Walloon: Loumire
light in Yiddish: ליכטיגקייט
light in Yoruba: Imole
light in Contenese: 光
light in Chinese: 光
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
ASA scale, Anschauung, British candle,
Hefner candle, Mickey Mouse, Paphian, Scheiner scale, Very
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ankle-deep, announcement, antelope, antinode, apical, apico-alveolar,
apico-dental, appear,
arrow, articulated, asinine, aspect, assail, assault, assimilated, atmospheric, attack, attenuate, attenuated, aurora, back, balefire, bank, barytone, basis, bay, bay window, be exposed, be
revealed, beacon, beacon
fire, beacons, beaming, bearable, beat, belabor, berate, bilabial, birdbrained, birdwitted, blond, blue book, blue darter,
blue streak, bougie decimale, bow window, boyish, brand, break, break of day, breakable, breezy, briefing, bright, brighten, brighten up, brightening, brightness, brilliant, bring to light,
brittle, broad, bubbly, bulletin, bump, buoyant, burn, butane lighter, cacuminal, camp, campy, candle, candle lumen, candle
power, candle-foot, candle-hour, candle-meter, candlelight, cannonball, carefree, casement, casement window,
casual, catchpenny, central, cerebral, chambering, chance, changeable, chanticleer, cheap-jack,
checked, cheer up,
cheerful, cigarette
lighter, clarification, clarify, clear, climb down, clobber, close, cloudless, cobwebby, cockcrow, cocklight, come across, come
down, come in, come out, come to light, comic, communication, communique, configuration, conflagrate, considering, consonant, consonantal, continuant, coquettish, corky, counterglow, courser, crack of dawn, cracking, crash-land, cream, creamy, crest, crumbly, cursory, cushy, dainty, dart, data, datum, dawn, dawning, day-peep, daybreak, daylight, dayspring, de Broglie wave,
debark, debonair, decimal candle,
decipherment,
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demonstration,
demythologization,
dental, deplane, depthless, descend, detrain, develop, diaphane, diaphanous, diffraction, diluted, dim, directory, disclose, discover, disembark, dismiss, dismount, dispatch, display case,
dissimilated,
ditch, diverting, dizzy, dorsal, downwind, downy, dun-white, eagle, easy, easy as pie, easygoing, editing, effect, effeminate, effortless, effulgent, eggshell, eidolon, electric light bulb,
electricity,
electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic wave, elucidate, elucidation, emendation, emerge, empty, empty-headed, encounter, endurable, enkindle, enlighten, enlightenment, entertaining, epidermal, eternity, ethereal, euhemerism, evanescent, evidence, evolve, exegesis, exemplification,
explain, explanation, explication, expose, exposed, exposition, exposure meter,
expounding, express
train, eye, facet, facile, facts, factual information,
faddish, faded, faint, fair, familiarization, fan the
flame, fan window, fanlight, farcical, fashion, fatuous, featherbrained, featherweight, feathery, featly, feature, feed, feed the fire, fickle, figure, find, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, fire, firebrand, firelight, first brightening,
flambeau, flame, flare, flare-up, flash, flashlight, flat, fleet, flighty, flimsy, flint, flint and steel, flirtatious, flood with
light, floodlight,
fluffy, fluorescence, fluorescent, flux, foamy, foolish, foot-candle, footing, form, fragile, frail, frame of reference,
framework, frangible, free and easy,
frequency, frequency
band, frequency spectrum, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, front, frothy, fusee, futile, gaslight, gauzy, gay, gazelle, gen, general information, gentle, gestalt, get down, get off,
giddy, gimcrack, gimcracky, girlish, glare, glass, glassware, glaucescent, glaucous, gleam, glib, glide, glim, glory, gloss, glossal, glottal, glow, go down, gossamer, gossamery, graceful, gracile, gray-white, greased
lightning, greyhound,
grille, grow bright, grow
light, guidebook,
guided wave, guise,
guttural, handout, happy, happy-go-lucky, harangue, hard, hard information, hare, headlight, heavy, high, highlight, hit, holiness, idle, ignite, igniter, ignition, illume, illuminant, illuminate, illumination, illuminator, illumine, illustration, image, imago, immutability, imperceptible, imponderous, impression, in consideration
of, in phase, in view of, inane, incandescence, incandescent, incandescent
body, incidental information, inconsequential,
inconsiderable,
inconstant, indistinct, infinite
goodness, infinite justice, infinite love, infinite mercy, infinite
power, infinite wisdom, infinity, inflame, info, information, insight, insignificant, instruction, insubstantial, intelligence, intensity, interference, international
candle, intonated,
iridescent, irradiate, ivory, ivory-white, jaunty, jejune, jerry, jerry-built, jet plane,
jolly, jovial, joyful, kindle, knee-deep, knowledge, labial, labiodental, labiovelar, lacy, lambaste, lamp, lamp-hour, lancet window,
land, lantern, lateral, lattice, lax, leger, level off, light as air,
light bulb, light into, light meter, light quantum, light source,
light up, light upon, light-colored, light-footed, light-headed,
light-hearted, light-hued, lighten, lighter, lighter than vanity,
lighthearted,
lighthouse, lightish, lightning, lightship, lightsome, lightweight, likeness, limber, lineaments, lingual, lint-white, liquid, lissome, lithe, little, longitudinal wave,
look, loose, loose-moraled, louver
window, low, lucent, lucid, luck, luculent, lumen, lumen meter, lumen-hour,
lumeter, luminant, luminary, luminate, luminescence, luminosity, luminous, luminous flux,
luminous intensity, luminous power, lux, magnesium flare, majesty, make a light, make
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mousse, muted, nacreous, namby-pamby, narrow, nasal, nasalized, neat-fingered,
neat-handed, nimble,
nimble-footed, node, not
deep, nothing to it, notice, notification, nugacious, nugatory, obscure, occlusive, occulting light, of
easy virtue, of loose morals, off-white, omnipotence, omnipotency, omnipresence, omniscience, omnisciency, on the surface,
opalescent, open, open the light, open-air,
oriel, otiose, out of phase, outlook, overshine, overshoot, oxytone, painless, palatal, palatalized, pale, pancake, pane, papery, pasteboardy, pastel, patinaed, pearl, pearly, pearly-white, peart, peep of day, pellucid, perch, period, periodic wave, perky, petty, pharos, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phase, phasis, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, phosphorescence,
phosphorescent,
photon, picture window,
pitch, pitched, place, plain, pneumatic, point of view,
port, portable, portfire, porthole, position, posttonic, presentation, prime, promiscuous, promotional
material, proof, publication, publicity, puny, put on, quantum, quicksilver, quiet, radiance, radiation, radio wave,
rare, rarefied, rationale, ray, reason, reference, reference system,
reflection, regard, reinforcement, rekindle, release, relight, relucent, relume, relumine, report, resilient, resonance, resonance
frequency, respect,
retroflex, reveal, ridicule, rocket, roomy, roost, rose window, rounded, sad, scared rabbit, scatterbrained, scintillation, scold, seeming, seismic wave, semblance, semigloss, semivowel, serene, set down, set fire to,
set on fire, settle,
settle down, shallow,
shallow-headed, shallow-minded, shallow-pated, shallow-rooted,
shallow-witted, shape,
shattery, shed light
upon, shine, shine a
light, shine upon, shining, shoal, shock wave, shopwindow, shot, showcase, shrug off, side, sidelight, sight, signal beacon, signal
flare, signal lamp, signal rocket, silly, simple, simple as ABC, simplification, simplify, simulacrum, sissified, sit down, situation, skin-deep, skinny, skittish, skylight, skyrocket, slack, slant, slapstick, sleazy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, smooth, sober, soft, soft-colored, soft-hued,
softened, solution, somber, sonant, souffle, sound wave, source of
light, sovereignty,
sparker, sparkle, spill, spotlight, sprightly, spry, stand, standpoint, starlight, stars, statement, stemware, stir the fire,
stoke, stoke the fire,
stopped, straightforward,
streak, streak of
lightning, stressed,
strike a light, striped snake, strong, stumble, stumble on, style, subdued, subtle, sun, sunlight, sunny, sunrise, sunup, superficial, supportable, surd, sure-footed, surface, surface wave, svelte, swallow, sweet, swift, switch on, syllabic, sylphlike, system, tacky, taking into account, talk
down, taper, tender, tense, tenuous, the dope, the goods,
the know, the scoop, thick, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set,
thin-spun, thinnish,
thought, threadlike, throaty, throw light upon,
thunderbolt, tidal
wave, tolerable,
tonal, tongue-lash,
tonic, torch, torrent, total effect, touch
down, touch off, toying,
tragicomic, translucent, translucid, transmission, transom, transparent, transparent
substance, transpire,
transverse wave, trifling, trite, trivial, trivialize, tropospheric, trough, tumble, turn on, turn up,
twangy, twist, ubiquity, unaccented, unburdensome, unclear, unclouded, uncomplicated, uncover, undemanding, undependable, understanding, underweight, unearth, unheavy, unhorse, unimportant, unit of flux,
unit of light, unity,
universe, unlocking, unobscured, unpredictable, unprofound, unreliable, unrounded, unstressed, unsubstantial, untaxing, unveil, upbraid, upwind, vacant, vacillating, vacuous, vague, vain, vapid, velar, versatile, vertiginous, vestibule of
Day, view, viewpoint, vitrics, vitrine, vocalic, vocoid, voiced, voiceless, volatile, vowel, vowellike, wanton, watch crystal, watch
fire, watch glass, watered, watered-down, watery, wave, wave equation, wave motion,
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paper, whitish, whity, whorish, wicket, wide, willowy, wind, window, window bay, window glass,
windowlight,
windowpane, windy, wiredrawn, wise, wispy, witty, womanish, word, write off, yeasty