Chapter 578: Chapter 503: The Dispute Between Waves and Particles, The Kingdom’s Spreading Quarrel!_2
Light is actually electricity, and electricity is actually light?
In the exposition of these Thunder Mages, light is a stream of high-speed, extremely minute particles, and electrons are composed of these light particles, which is why the propagation speed of the two appears to be highly consistent.
The reason electricity emits light is that at the moment when lightning is excited, it begins to dissipate its ‘energy’ in the form of light, just like a radioactive element does.
This undoubtedly completely contradicts the wave theory proposed by Jeffrey, but Anthony and his colleagues also presented compelling evidence—they successfully created a photovoltaic device!
The material used is silicon!
As long as a silicon board is irradiated with light of sufficient intensity, it can generate a continuous current.
This theory perfectly explains the operating principle of laser magic.
If light is indeed minute electricity, then when a large amount of light is injected into the outer electrons of a nucleus, its energy will surge, enabling it to jump to higher orbits and then emit the excess energy directly in the form of light!
The group of Thunder Mages even gave a new name to the element of light, calling it a photoelectron!
They even blatantly stated in the “Magic Daily” that technologies like the internal combustion engine and power generators are already outdated. Why bother with such trouble when in the future, you could simply place a huge silicon board above every city, and generate electricity directly from the nearly infinite sunlight above, wouldn’t that be perfect?
After elaborating on the photovoltaic effect, Anthony also personally took considerable space to refute Jeffrey’s wave theory.
What is a wave? It’s the process of propagation of a vibration through some medium, like when a stone is thrown into water, disrupting the surface directly; the water molecules in front push the ones behind them, and thus, the force is transmitted outwards.
This means that the propagation of waves requires a medium; this is true for both sound waves and water waves. But light is different—it can propagate through the empty vacuum of space.
So the theory of light waves is complete nonsense!
“What rubbish about photoelectrons!” Jeffrey’s face darkened immediately upon getting the new issue of the “Magic Daily.”
His wave theory had just been published two days ago, and Anthony and his colleagues had come up with this photoelectron theory to undermine it. In his view, this was purely out of jealousy, a malicious academic suppression!
After all, it was normal for him to arouse envy since he alone had led a dozen apprentices to complete the research on the Essence of Light!
However, out of caution, Jeffrey still had his apprentices replicate the photovoltaic experiment published in the “Magic Daily.”
After over an hour of meticulous work, a few apprentices cautiously reported their findings.
“Teacher, we’ve tried it, and it seems that light really can generate electricity… Whether it’s sunlight, laser, or monochromatic light, as long as the intensity is enough, they can all create an electric current.”
Jeffrey was taken aback, his brows furrowing tightly.
Could it be that light really is electricity?
Ever since the stellar orbit model of elements proposed by the star of magic, the existence of electrons had already been confirmed, revolving around the atomic nucleus just like planets orbit a star.
If light is indeed electricity, then it should be a particle, not a wave…
A flicker of doubt appeared in Jeffrey’s mind, but he soon reaffirmed his belief.
The wave theory is undoubtedly the indisputable truth; after all, the results of experiments are there for all to see!
No matter whether one is a wizard or not, regardless of expertise in electrics and optics, anyone can perfectly replicate this experiment with a setup!
As for the so-called photovoltaic effect, Jeffrey thought that perhaps it was just a normal phenomenon of the conversion of photonic and electric energy!
Rather than saying it’s light generating electricity, it’s better to say that the silicon board was generating the electricity!
Even wood burns and creates fire, does that mean wood is fire?
At this thought, Jeffrey had a school wizard summon several great wizards who were close to him and stationed in Fire Oil City.
His wave theory was now facing malicious suppression by envious rivals, and with him alone, it would be difficult to maintain the authority of the wave theory. He needed more people to publically support it.
About three days later, Jeffrey, along with several great wizards, published their new research findings on the wave theory, complete with amendments.
The vacuum domain they were capable of creating with their current abilities was not completely empty, and it might contain some kind of subtle element they had yet to discover. Or perhaps space itself was the medium for light!
For example, the disturbances created by Force Field Magic involve using space as a medium!
In response, Jeffrey also wrote an entire page to refute Anthony’s particle theory—if light were just tinier electrons, then a large gathering of light must definitely generate a magnetic field!
However, this was tested in the vacuum experiment chamber set up with the help of several great wizards, and the gathered beams of light did not produce the anticipated magnetic field phenomenon at all.
This statement, once published, dealt a direct blow to the photoelectric effect proposed by Anthony…
After all, the fundamental logic known to every Thunder Mage is that electricity generates magnetism, and magnetism generates electricity!
The opinion of the kingdom shifted once again, and more and more people began to believe in Jeffrey’s wave theory again because the results of the experiments were right there and could not be faked.
“What shall we do now, teacher…” Having read the latest issue of Magic Daily, Fula fell into a panic, especially after hurriedly conducting an experiment and confirming that the gathered light could not generate a surrounding magnetic field, her anxiety grew even more.
Anthony paced non-stop in the laboratory, pondering in his mind where his photoelectric effect had gone wrong and why the light beams did not generate a surrounding magnetic field.
“Could it be that the energy of individual light particles is insufficient, and therefore they’re not enough to generate a magnetic field?” Sanchez mused aloud. “It’s also possible that the magnetic field produced is too weak for us to detect.”
“That’s possible!” Anthony nodded, acknowledging that more experiments were needed to prove this point.
Under Jeffrey’s criticism, everyone was working with full zeal, searching for any evidence to support the particle theory!
After days of diligent research, Anthony didn’t uncover any magnetic field effect from the light beams, but he released another bombshell—they developed a particle theory that explained the phenomenon of light diffraction!
According to their speculation, electricity is composed of a multitude of photoelectrons. At the instant electricity is excited, it bursts like a bomb, ejecting all internal light particles in every direction.
However, the number of these divergent light particles was so immense and densely packed that they produced a wave-like phenomenon.
Furthermore, these clusters of energy-rich light particles might even have the potential to ‘explode’ and scatter again, like when encountering an unpassable gap…
Only when they reduce to individual particles does this pseudo ‘wave’ property disappear.
As for the distance… Thunder Mages speculate that from the start of the divergence to thinning out into individual light particles, it might be a hundred million kilometers, or even more than a billion kilometers. After all, the speed of light is so fast, it would take at least a few minutes for it to settle down, right?
Jeffrey nearly died of anger when he saw the newspaper.
A hundred million kilometers? Wouldn’t that require circling the Eternal Star two thousand five hundred times? Where would he find such an enormous experimental area?
Their argument clearly intended to prevent him from refuting the particle theory with experiments. Even if he managed to address the distance issue, Anthony and his colleagues could still claim that their measured data was not precise enough.
Jeffrey’s anger rose unabated. He didn’t sleep or perform any more experiments but got up from bed, spending the entire night writing over ten thousand words furiously denouncing the theory as a baseless fantasy!
The verbal battle between the two parties continued for more than a month, not only without halting but also escalating. What started as three to seven days per response, rigorously refuting the opponent’s theory with experiments, had now degenerated into pure rebuttals and insults.
Roluo, the editor of Magic Daily, could hardly contain his glee—it was driving him mad with joy. The tabloids, without any limits, had begun to pick sides and hurl insults, and the sale of newspapers skyrocketed daily…