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McQueen
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Three hundred years after the controversy had started , the question of whether light is wave like or particle like in nature is still raging. Modern theories of light tend more to the particulate view of light , in spite of the wave like properties associated with light and the generally accepted view of the wave-particle duality of light , wherein light possesses both wave like and particle like properties but can never possesses both properties simultaneously. One instance of the general dissatisfaction with the theory of wave-particle duality is that explanations of how light undergoes reflection , refraction , and transmittance through substances is today explained almost entirely in terms of the particle nature of light , while even ten years ago , explanations for the manner in which light underwent , reflection , refraction and transmittance were almost wholly wave based. The fact is that the overwhelming evidence tends towards the view that light , in the form of photons , does interact with matter ( electrons) in a very definable particulate manner. In order to support this view , the conjecture has been put forward that light might be composed of particles but that the particles themselves travel like a wave , this is analogous to the way in which water , which is made up of molecules , assumes a wave like form. The draw back with this point of view is that a wave never interacts with matter in the manner of a particle , while light does. This leads to the saying that light travels like a wave but arrives at its destination as a particle. Thus the debate still rages. Today the widely prevalent view is that Reflection is due to the rapid absorption and re-emission of photons , while refraction is also thought to be due to the result of the slowing down of light as it travels through a medium due to its absorption and emission as it travels through the medium. This raises the extremely interesting question of why , if light can travel through a medium such as glass by being rapidly absorbed and emitted by the electrons in the atoms of the glass , cannot it be transmitted through a metal in a similar manner. The rapid absorption and emission of photons through a glass pane implies that this kind of interaction is due to the conduction band properties of the glass. This being so , why cannot light travel through a metal , a metal has wide open conduction bands , it should theoretically be possible to replicate in a metal the phenomenon which is known to exist in glass , namely the transmittance of light . Why doesn’t it happen ?