Abstract: Light is considered to be one of the most important phenomena. The laws of rectilinear propagation and of reflection immediately follow the path that takes least time, and the laws of refraction also follow the same path. This is proved by calculation also. The speed of light in a medium is inversely proportional to the refractive index of the medium, as observed in the calculations from this chapter. Fermat's theorem implies something that had long been suspected but was never proved, that the speed of light is not infinite, but that light propagates with a definite speed that can, in principle, be measured. Waves are characterized by certain parameters, which include their amplitude, their velocity, their wavelength, their frequency, and their period. The chapter concludes that the energy of the photon decreases enormously as one passes from the shortest wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum to the longest of which the near-ultraviolet and visible regions are the most important in photobiology.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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