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Newton’s Contributions to the Understanding of Light

Last time, we explored the wave model of light and the historical developments leading to it. Now, we’ll delve into Isaac Newton’s contributions and his perspective on light. In 1666, Isaac Newton began his experiments with light using prisms, aiming to disprove the wave theory of light. He believed light consisted of particles, which he called corpuscles. Newton demonstrated that light behaves like particles by showing how it reflects off surfaces, akin to bouncing balls. Newton’s experiments with prisms revealed that sunlight passing through a prism splits into a spectrum of colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). By using a second prism, he recombined the spectrum into white light, arguing that the glass of the prism did not corrupt the light. This experiment supported his corpuscular theory. Despite attacks from Robert Hooke, who favored the wave theory, Newton persisted. By 1672, he presented his findings to the Royal Society, advocating for the corpuscular nature of light. Meanwhile, Christiaan Huygens sought to incorporate refraction and reflection into the wave theory, encountering difficulties explaining certain phenomena like the behavior of calcite crystals, which produced double images. In 1704, following Hooke’s death, Newton published “Opticks,” detailing his experiments and solidifying the corpuscular theory’s influence. Despite his success in many scientific areas, Newton’s corpuscular theory was eventually replaced as further advancements in understanding light were made. Newton’s work on light demonstrates the scientific process of debate, experimentation, and refinement. Understanding these historical interactions highlights the collaborative and sometimes contentious nature of scientific progress.