Abstract
The perplexing question for physicists in the 19th century was the nature of light; particularly, the question that how could energy be transmitted through space, even through a vacuum. During the latter part of the 19th century, an entirely new line of reasoning developed that derived, in great part, from James Clerk Maxwell's prediction of the velocity of an electromagnetic wave from first principles, and the development of his famous equation that stated the speed of an electromagnetic wave in a vacuum. He hypothesized that changing electric fields induce magnetic fields. Maxwell's hypothesis predicted that electromagnetic waves could be produced by oscillating charges or currents. From Maxwell's findings, a generalization could be made that electromagnetic waves are known to be energy propagated through space and that one of the simplest models for this generation is an oscillating electric charge. Electromagnetic waves exist in a continuous spectrum that extends over many decades of frequency, and that includes radiations from the lowest frequencies (radio waves) to the highest (X-rays and gamma rays). This chapter describes the development of Plank's law for an electromagnetic wave on the basis of Maxwell's law of classical theory of electromagnetism, and Einstein's concept of photon and photoelectric effect that led to formation of the quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation. Wave theory proposed by de Broglie (1921) suggested that all particles have the characteristics of an electromagnetic wave in addition to their well understood particulate nature.
Published Version
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