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The interference pattern generated, which has the intensities decreasing to the left
and right, could only be caused by wave forms that were being generated at the
mouth of each slit. The wave fronts themselves would then intersect with one an-
other and create new waves that would ultimately create this interference pattern.
Young's simple piece of science seemed to have proven, on this occasion at least,
that Sir Isaac Newton was wrong and that light did indeed travel in waves.
In the 1860s, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell built on Young's work and put
forward his theory of electromagnetism. In his theory, he described light as a unique
kind of wave, one made up of both electric and magnetic fields. Hence, it was also
referred to as electromagnetic radiation.
Maxwell's work itself was, in turn, enlarged upon with a system of dual measurement
for both wavelengths and the frequencies being created. Wavelength was used to
describe the measurement of the peaks and troughs in a light wave, with values ran-
ging between 0.1 nanometers at one end of the scale and climbing up to the centi-
meter and even meter ranges at the other end.
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