What is the experience of Jung

Anyone who studies wave optics, sooner or later, inevitably encounters references to Jung's experience. In this case, it is really about an epoch-making discovery, which has radically influenced the further development of science. But about everything in order.

A ray of light in the darkness of doubt

The light we see is what surrounds every person since birth. It is simple and at the same time complicated. There is nothing surprising in the fact that attempts were constantly made to explain what light is and what its properties are. Among the adherents of various models, serious debates flared up, but no one could put an end to this question. This happened until Jung's experiment, which brilliantly confirmed the wave theory of light, was carried out.

Previously it was believed that light is a stream of special particles - corpuscles. A little later, in full accordance with the discoveries of physics, the corpuscles were replaced by photons. A photon is a particle that has zero charge and mass, and also exists only at the speed of light. At the same time, Newton conducted an interesting experiment on observing the properties of light: he arranged a glass plate and a concave lens between himself and the source. At the same time he observed not a point source, but rings (later named after him). Since at that time Jung's experiment had not yet been put, Newton could not explain what was observed from the point of view of the theory of light consisting of particles.

Experiment with a double slit

Finally in 1803 T. Jung decided to finally confirm or refute the corpuscular hypothesis. He prepared and carried out a simple experiment that made scientists look at familiar things in a new way. Jung's experiment showed that light is an electromagnetic wave with certain characteristics.

A sheet of opaque material was taken, two parallel slots were made in it with a width corresponding to the wavelength of the emitted "test" light. At a distance from the sheet there was a screen, allowing you to observe the "behavior" of light. A light flux from a point source was directed to the sheet. Jung reasoned correctly: if light is a stream of particles, then two parallel lines would appear on the screen. The maximum intensity of the luminescence would be in the place of the fall of two rays, and between them there would be darkness (the sheet is opaque). But if the theory of corpuscles turned out to be erroneous, then the light wave, passing through the cracks, would create secondary waves (the principle formulated in 1678 by H. Huygens). Since their propagation does not interfere with anything, then, theoretically, they would have reached the middle of the screen between the projections of the slits, and their wave amplitude and phase coincided. Due to interference (overlap), this could lead to the greatest brightness of the light strip just between the projections of each slit, which would make it possible to assert that light is one of the manifestations of wave disturbances.

As is now known, the corpuscular hypothesis fell, and its place was taken by the wave point of view. On the screen bands with different intensity of luminescence were observed. The brightest is in the middle, then the dim, etc. The decrease in luminescence is due to the antiphase of secondary interfering waves.

However, even in our time, after carrying out a series of refining experiments, the theory was amended. In accordance with them, it is commonly believed that light has a dual nature, manifesting itself both as a wave and as a particle. The results of experiments depend on their formulation. The newest quantum theory of the structure of the universe explains this easily: the results of observations are obtained exactly as the experimenter wants them to see. Duality is inherent not only in the light, but also in such a seemingly studied particle as an electron.