bølgetolkning

Bølgetolkning is the Danish term for the wave interpretation of light, the view that light behaves as waves rather than as particles. It explains phenomena such as interference, diffraction, and polarization through wave propagation and interaction with matter. The term is most often encountered in discussions of the history of optics, where it contrasts with particle- or corpuscular theories.

Historically, the wave theory was proposed by Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century and faced opposition from Isaac Newton’s corpuscular theory. In the early 1800s, Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment produced interference fringes that strongly supported the wave explanation. Augustin-Jean Fresnel and others developed a comprehensive wave treatment of diffraction. With James Clerk Maxwell’s electromagnetism in the 1860s, light was understood as electromagnetic waves traveling in vacuum, which reinforced the wave interpretation. The concept of a luminiferous aether as a medium for light was later abandoned after experiments like Michelson–Morley and the rise of special relativity.

In modern physics, the wave interpretation remains a core tool in classical optics and electromagnetism for predicting interference, diffraction, and polarization. In quantum theory, light is described by a wave function or as quanta (photons); wave and particle descriptions are viewed as complementary aspects within quantum electrodynamics, with the wave picture emerging as a useful classical limit.

See also: wave theory of light, particle theory of light, interference, diffraction, polarization, electromagnetism.