Wave-Particle Duality of Light

Wave-particle duality is concerned with the dual nature of light. Specifically, the particle and wave nature of light. The particle nature of light is the little packages of photons that make up light, and the wave nature of light is the wave pattern that light follows. An example of a way that light behaves like a particle is that it can’t go through walls like sound can. Light also can behave like a wave when we observe the interference pattern of light. This dual nature of light is important because nothing else known in the universe behaves and can be described in the way that light is. Getting to the consensus that light is both a particle and a wave has been a heated debate for decades, and to this day imagining what light truly is, is not humanly possible due to our lack of experience with a wave-particle nature. This thesis explores the history of the debates on the nature of light, and how the modern view was accomplished.