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  • BBC Science Focus Magazine

    THE EXPLAINER WHAT IS LIGHT?

    Sep 08, 2021 3 minutes
    by BRIAN CLEGG

    IS LIGHT A WAVE OR A PARTICLE?

    Neither: light is its own unique phenomenon – the outcome of an interaction between electrical and magnetic fields – and it behaves like both waves and particles.

    Most of us were taught at school that light is a wave. This is because it does things that waves do. So, for example, waves undergo interference. To understand this, imagine that you’ve just dropped two stones in a still pond. Each of those stones will create ripples, with the

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