Wave-Particle Duality Timeline by Anabelle Patricia Madera tineo

Empedocles (c. 490–430 BCE)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:10:01 UTC

Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who proposed that light is a fast-moving substance emitted by the eyes. This was one of the first light theories that opened the idea of light as a concept.

Democritus (c. 460–370 BCE)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:22:18 UTC

– Suggested that light consists of tiny particles. Based on his initial ideas scientists started thinking light and everything is made of many particles. This was also one of the early atomic theories.

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:24:51 UTC

Rejected particle theories, supporting the idea that light travels as a wave. He believed light was a kind of disturbance or wave-like phenomenon traveling through a medium, like air or water.

Alhazen (965–1040 CE)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:28:56 UTC

Considered how light interacts with objects and developed an early understanding of optics.

Isaac Newton (1666-1672)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:29:56 UTC

Proposed the corpuscular theory of light, where light consists of particles that move in straight lines and reflect and refract. In optics, the corpuscular theory of light states that light is made up of small discrete particles called "corpuscles" (little particles) which travel in a straight line with a finite velocity and possess impetus. This notion was based on an alternate description of atomism of the time period.

Christiaan Huygens (1678)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:31:12 UTC

Introduced the wave theory of light, arguing that light propagates as a wave in an invisible medium (the "ether"). He theorized that light was emitted from a source in all directions as a series of waves. This explained the concepts of reflection and refraction but failed to explain diffraction and polarization.

Thomas Young (1801)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:33:47 UTC

Performed the famous double-slit experiment, demonstrating interference patterns, and providing strong evidence for the wave nature of light.

Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1816-1818)

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:34:21 UTC

Expanded on Young’s work, explaining light behavior using wave equations. Fresnel equations apply Newton's calculus to light's behavior proving that light can behave as a wave.

Wave-Particle Duality Timeline

anabellemt9 — 2020-11-06 15:35:28 UTC

James Clerk Maxwell (1864)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:38:33 UTC

Formulated Maxwell’s equations, proving that light is an electromagnetic wave that propagates through space without needing an "ether." James Clerk Maxwell formulated a set of equations that unified electricity, magnetism, and light, demonstrating that light is an electromagnetic wave,

Heinrich Hertz (1887)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:40:04 UTC

Discovered the photoelectric effect, showing that light could eject electrons from a metal surface.

Max Planck (1900)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:41:54 UTC

Introduced quantum theory, proposing that energy is quantized and emitted in discrete packets called quanta. Planck's quantum theory revolutionized physics by stating that energy is not emitted or absorbed continuously but in discrete packets called quanta, with the energy of each quantum proportional to its frequency. Planck's theory introduced the concept of "quantization," meaning that energy exists in discrete, indivisible units rather than as a continuous stream.

Albert Einstein (1905)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:43:32 UTC

Explained the photoelectric effect by proposing that light consists of discrete particles called photons, reviving Newton’s particle model but in a new quantum context. We can say this was the birth of the Wave-Particle Duality Theory which states that light behaves both as a wave and a particle.

Louis de Broglie (1924)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:45:47 UTC

Introduced wave-particle duality, suggesting that particles like electrons can exhibit wave-like behavior.

Werner Heisenberg & Niels Bohr (1920s-1930s)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:46:47 UTC

Contributed to quantum mechanics, which confirmed that light behaves as both a wave and a particle depending on the experiment.

Richard Feynman (1940s-1960s)

anabellemt9 — 2025-03-22 18:48:09 UTC

Developed quantum electrodynamics (QED), explaining how light and matter interact using probability amplitudes.