Salvaging Newton’s 313 Year Old Corpuscular Theory of Light.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
As is well known – Newton’s corpuscular model of light can explain the Law of Reflection and
Snell’s Law of Refraction. Sadly and regrettably – its predictions about the speed of light in different
mediums runs contrary to experience. Because of this, Newton’s theory of light was abandoned in
favour of Huygens’ wave theory. It [Newton’s corpuscular model of light] predicts that the speed
of light is larger in higher density mediums. This prediction was shown to be wrong by Foucault’s
1850 landmarking experiment that brought down this theory of Newton. The major assumption of
Newton’s corpuscularmodel of light is that the corpuscles of light have an attraction with the particles
of the medium. When the converse is assumed, i.e., the corpuscles of light are assumed to not have
an attraction-effect, but a repulsion-effect with the particles of the medium, one obtains the correct
predictions of the speed of light in denser mediums. This new assumption [of Newton’s corpuscles
repelling with the particles of the medium] might explain why light has the maximum speed in any
given medium.
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Nyambuya, G. G., Dube, A. and Musosi, G. 2017. Salvaging Newton’s 313 Year Old Corpuscular Theory of Light