Learning Goal
The Dual Nature of Light
Teacher tools for this standard
Lesson Plan · Guided Notes · Exit Ticket · Re-teach · Homework
Teacher tools for this standard
Lesson Plan · Guided Notes · Exit Ticket · Re-teach · Homework
- Lesson Plan →Objectives, pacing and practice, built from this lesson's brief.
- Guided Notes →One page your students fill in and keep.
- Exit Ticket →Three items at the end of class. No student accounts.
- Re-teach →After an exit ticket: who missed what, and what to do tomorrow.
- Homework →Assign practice; it grades itself.
"While it is strange to think of a massless particle exhibiting momentum, it is now a well-established fact within the scientific community."
"For the discovery of this conserved scattering, now known as the **Compton effect**, Arthur Compton was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929."
"We have long known that EM radiation is like a wave, capable of interference and diffraction. We now see that light can also be modeled as particles—massless photons of discrete energy and momentum. We call this twofold nature the **particle-wave duality**, meaning that EM radiation has properties of both particles and waves."
"$$\mathbf{p} = \dfrac{h}{\lambda},$$ was determined by Louis de Broglie. In this equation, called the de Broglie relation, *h* represents Planck's constant and *λ* is the photon wavelength."
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"While it is strange to think of a massless particle exhibiting momentum, it is now a well-established fact within the scientific community."
"For the discovery of this conserved scattering, now known as the Compton effect, Arthur Compton was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929."
"We have long known that EM radiation is like a wave, capable of interference and diffraction. We now see that light can also be modeled as particles—massless photons of discrete energy and momentum. We call this twofold nature the particle-wave duality, meaning that EM radiation has properties of both particles and waves."
"$$\mathbf{p} = \dfrac{h}{\lambda},$$ was determined by Louis de Broglie. In this equation, called the de Broglie relation, h represents Planck's constant and λ is the photon wavelength."
What you'll learn
- Explain that a photon carries momentum and calculate it using p = h/λ (the de Broglie relation)
- Describe the Compton effect and explain how it shows energy and momentum are conserved in photon-electron collisions
- Explain how photon momentum accounts for comet tails and how it is used in solar sails
- Explain the particle-wave duality of light and why one experiment reveals either particle-like or wave-like behavior, but not both at once
Slides
Step through the lesson, or watch it as a narrated video
Slides
In development
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