Skip to main content

Wave-Particle Duality of Light

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Light behaves as a wave in phenomena like diffraction, but the photoelectric effect shows light also delivers energy in discrete packets called photons.

Show

A photon's energy, E = hν, explains why light must exceed a threshold frequency to eject an electron, unlike a pure-wave model.

Watch for

Wave and particle are two descriptions light exhibits in different experiments, not separate kinds of light alternating.