alleryStart learning →Newton's own explanation of light treated it as:
AOscillating magnetic fields
BPurely a mathematical fiction
CStreams of tiny particles
DWaves in a fluid ether
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. Streams of tiny particles
1. Newton explained his optics findings in terms of a corpuscular view of light.
2. In that view light was composed of streams of extremely tiny particles.
3. Those particles travelled at high speeds according to Newton's laws of motion.
4. The wave description of light came later, and Maxwell's electromagnetic fields later still.
5. Modern quantum theory ended up needing both pictures at once.
_Source: OpenStax Chemistry 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 6 'Electronic Structure and Periodic Properties of Elements', sections 6.1-6.5_
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