Christiaan Huygens In 1690, Christiaan Huygens had a theory to help explain the wave-like nature of light. Newton has a theory about the particle theory of light advanced and Huygens didn't believe that at all. He thought that the quick speed of light was only possible if light was made up of waves. Then he realized that the light waves travelled on a ether that filled up the void through air and space. This principle was named after him (Huygens' Principle) . It explained that each point in a light wave was explained by small wavelets that combined together to make a wavefront. Because of his theories, it explained more about the laws of refraction, diffraction, interference, and reflection. Click here to see the "Reflection and Refraction with Huygens Wavelets"! Back to homepage |
