He reasoned that if light consisted of waves, then shining it through two narrow, closely spaced slits would cause the waves from each slit to overlap and interfere. On the surface, it seems simple—shine light or fire particles at a screen through two slits and observe the pattern they create. Young’s double slit experiment gave definitive proof of the wave character of light An interference pattern is obtained by the superposition of light from two slits. They confirmed that light exists as both a wave and a particle but cannot be observed in both forms at the same time. A photon’s wave/particle duality is affected when it is observed
Light has been one of the major areas of inquiry for physicists since we first began questioning the world around us. First performed by thomas young in 1803 with light, the experiment revealed an interference pattern typical of waves. Without diffraction and interference, the light would simply make two lines on the screen.
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