 | Light is all around us, and not just the kind of light we can see with our eyes.
Visible light is one small part of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from gamma rays and x-rays to infrared radiation and radio waves.
Electromagnetic waves are oscillations in electric and magnetic fields, can travel through a vacuum, and propagate at the speed of light (300,000 km/s).
But although light often behaves as a wave, one of the amazing insights from a century ago is that sometimes light will instead behave as a particle.
This dual nature of light is one of the first indications of the richness and strangeness of quantum phenomena at the microscopic size scales of the atom.
|  | | By the end of this chapter you should be able to
|  | describe the connection between electromagnetic fields and light;
| | calculate wave and refraction properties related to the propagation of light;
| | describe characteristics and behaviors of electromagnetic waves;
| | describe the electromagnetic spectrum and provide examples of phenomena and technologies in the x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio regions;
| | describe and explain the photoelectric effect; and
| | list evidence for both the wave and particle properties of light.
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|  | 22A: Color, frequency, and wavelength of light
22B: Detect infrared light with a prism
22C: Photoelectric effect
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