| No. | Name of Scientist | Year | Place | Perspective | Key ideas |
| 1 | Democritus | B.C | Ancient Greece | Particle theory | “atoms swarmed into the observer’s eyes” |
| 2 | Empedocles | B.C | Ancient Greece | Wave theory | “ Objects becomes visible when touched by light rays emitted by the object” |
| 3 | Plato | B.C | Ancient Greece | Wave theory | |
| 4 | Leonardo Da Vinci | 15th century | Italy | Wave theory | “Compared the light reflection to echo” |
| 5 | Francesco Maria Grimaldi | 1665 | Italy | Wave theory | “ Paper published in 1665 after his death “ worked on diffraction supporting La Da Vinci |
| 6 | Robert Hooke and Boyle | 1665 | England | Wave theory | “ Compared light with water waves” explained the colours were formed on the water due to oil film |
English: Validity of several theories for periodic water waves, according to Le Méhauté (1976). The light-blue area is the range of validity of cnoidal wave theory; light-yellow for Airy wave theory; and the dashed blue lines demarcate the required order of Stokes’ wave theory. The light-gray shading gives the range extension by numerical approximations using fifth-order stream-function theory, for high waves (H > ¼ H breaking ). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Light! Wave or particle
In the end of seventeenth century saw a fierce debate about the nature of light. Newton compared light with a stream of particles and this was accepted for reflection and refraction could be explained using this model. He also argued that if light were waves then it would not form the sharp image of the object. (He did not realise that the light wave were too small!)
| No. | Name of scientist | Year | Place | Perspective | Key ideas |
| 7 | Thomas Young | 1802 | England | Wave theory | His double slit experiment |
| 8 | Leon Foucault | 1853 | France | Wave theory | His experimental value of speed of light gave a death blow to particle theory for it required the light to travel faster in H2O then in N2. |
| 9 | Albert Einstein | 1905 | Germany | Particle theory | Photo electric effect. |
The dilemma was recreated and then it was resolved only after Louis de Broglie produced his theory of wave-particle duality. He received the Nobel Prize for the world had accepted his explanation of light as being both particle and wave!
This new discovery gave rise to quantum mechanics.
| 10 | Albert Einstein | 1905 | Germany | Particle theory | Photo electric effect. |
| 11 | Thomson | England | Particle theory | Cathode rays | |
| 12 | Max Plank | 1918 | Germany | Quantised Radiation | Black Body Radiation |
| 13 | Louis De Broglie | 1927 | France | Issue resolved | Crystals do show diffraction when illuminated by electrons as confirmed independently by Davisson and Thomson. |
The dilemma was recreated and then it was resolved only after Louis de Broglie produced his theory of wave-particle duality. He received the Nobel Prize for the world had accepted his explanation of light as being both particle and wave!
This new discovery gave rise to quantum mechanics.
T
Lights (Photo credit: cycloctopus)
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