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On the previous page, I introduced the idea that every particle can act as a wave and every wave can act as a particle.
On this page I show Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect. This fully agrees with Planck's proposal
that light is a bunch of photons.
Physicists knew at the time that if one shines ultraviolate rays on various metals, electrons are sometimes emitted.
Oddly, no matter how strong the light was, below a certain frequency threshold no electrons were emitted. This
threshold depends on the type of metal.
After hearing the idea that light would be quantized into particles called photons, Einstein suggested that an
electron in metals receives the energy it needs to leave the metal by absorbing a single photon. Unless the photon's
energy exceeds the required amount (called the work function of the metal), the electron cannot leave the metal.
Since the photon's energy is given by its frequency, all of a sudden, the existence of the frequency threshold
became absolutely natural.
On the next page, I will give a physical description of photons. |
Dual World
