No one dared to challenge Newton’s corpuscular theory until Christopher Huygens proposed his wave theory of light in the early 18th century. Here are some wave formulas that are useful when you’re working with optics. This medium is called ether. All these are nothing but the applications of the wave optics. It is used most frequently with waves such as acoustic waves (sound) or electromagnetic waves such as light or radio waves, in which case the average power transfer over one periodof the wave is used. If a plane wavefront falls on a converging (or) diverging lens, the emergent light will have a spherical wavefront. Answer: If the plane wavefronts are being reflected on the plane mirror, the shape of the wavefront of the reflected light is again planar. According to Huygens’s theory, light consists of waves that travel through a very dilute and highly elastic material medium present everywhere in space”. If a plane wavefront falls on a concave mirror, the shape of the reflected light is spherical. One supports the particle nature of light; the other supports the wave nature. The major failure of Newton’s corpuscular theory was that it could not explain why the velocity of light was lesser in the denser medium compared to vacuum. • Wave optics stands as a witness for a famous standoff between two great scientific communities who dedicated their lives to understanding the nature of light. You can determine the wave frequency and period, predict how fast light travels in various materials, and determine how light […] Further, it involves integrating ray-estimated field over a mirror, lens or aperture for the calculation of the scattered or transmitted field. According to Huygen’s principle, every point on a given wavefront can be regarded as a fresh source of new disturbance and sends out its own spherical wavelets called secondary wavelets. How do you differentiate between constructive and destructive interference? Find the direction of the propagation of the wave. 1. If a plane wavefront falls on a convex mirror, the shape of the reflected light is spherical. Polarization as Huygens assumed light waves to be mechanical disturbances which are longitudinal in nature. In wave optics, the approximation is carried out by using ray optics for the estimation of the field on a surface. In this case, Amplitude of light waves, A∝1rA\propto \frac{1}{\sqrt{r}}A∝r1, Intensity of light waves I∝1rI\propto \frac{1}{r}I∝r1. The concept of wavefronts for reflection and refraction is explained below. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. The direction in which light travels is called a ‘ray’ of light. Depending on the shape of the source of light, wavefronts can be of three types. It is an electromagnetic wave which is transverse in nature which travels with a finite speed given by; A wavefront is defined as the laws of all points of the medium which vibrate in the same phase.