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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

photon concepts

College

Humanities

Department

Philosophy

Abstract

G. N. Lewis coined the word ‘photon’ in 1926 to describe what he thought was a particle that transmitted radiation from one atom to another.1 The word ‘photon’ caught on and eventually became the name for the smallest measurable bit of light. Developments in physics since that time, however, have suggested that it is “no longer straightforward to explain what is meant by a photon.”2 Select physicists now disregard the traditional view that photons are “bullets”3 of light. Others have argued against another conception of light that is based on the ideas of waves not unlike those found on a beach.4 It seems that no one really understands light at all, including the physicists. Towards the end of his life, Einstein put it this way, “All these years of incessant pondering brought me not an inch nearer an answer to the question of what light quanta are. These days, any youngster imagines that he knows this. But he is quite mistaken…For the rest of my life I will meditate on what light is.”5

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