Thread: light

i have been curious as to what light is made of.

like what is a single piece of light made of like i heard of an experiment where they shot radioactive particles at a sheety of gold leaf and some of them went through without bumbing into the atoms and they did something like it with light where it reflected off. and if it is made of something why can i shine a torch(flashlight) at a pane of glass and it goes through. if it is made of solid matter how is it possible.


all these questions are because i dont know what light is.

please help me.

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation.

We call the common light, visible light (aka colour)

Light is either one of these two:

1: A photon (which is a particle of light, containing energy), which is created from electrons motion, if we keep it simple.

2: A wave. A wave has frequency and wavelength. Energy can be found using these.

It is easier to imagine that light is just a small particle, or just a ball of energy really.

Light travels at 2.99792458x10^8m/sec/sec

Or also expressed as: 299,792,458 metres per second, per second (light would take 1 second to get from Earth to the moon).

Nothing can go faster than light. It gets complicated from here.



That is light (aka Electromagnetic radiation).

This is visible light.



Visible light is one part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Just like X-rays are, or radio waves.

thank you so much you just answered piles of questions that have amassed over several years that have been sending me mad each time i have a holiday from school.

I hope I've made it as easy as possible, if you have any more questions just ask. I'm glad I've helped