Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Diffraction Grating, Corpuscular Theory Of Light, Diffraction
2 Oct 2016
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Thomas young published the results from his double-slit experiment (lesson 11) in 1807 which put the wave theory of light on a firm footing. However, so strong was newton"s reputation and his corpuscular theory of light that young"s results were not accepted until more than ten years later when, in 1819, augustin fresnel (1788 1827) presented to the. French academy a wave theory of light that predicted and explained interference and diffraction effects. (refer to pearson pages 691 to 692. ) Almost immediately after fresnel introduced his wave theory, In other words, a bright spot should appear in the center of the shadow. After attempting the experiment and failing to demonstrate the existence of a bright spot, poisson claimed that he had refuted fresnel"s theory. But when the experiment was redone by francois arago in 1818, the bright spot was seen at the very center of the shadow!
