What is the significance of the photoelectric effect in modern physics?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the significance of the photoelectric effect in modern physics?
It explains the wave nature of light
It supports the theory of relativity
It led to the development of quantum mechanics
It has no significance
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the significance of the photoelectric effect in modern physics?
Step 1: Understand what the photoelectric effect is. It is the phenomenon where light shining on a metal surface causes the metal to emit electrons.
Step 2: Recognize that before the photoelectric effect was explained, light was thought to behave only as a wave.
Step 3: Learn that Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric effect in 1905, showing that light also behaves like particles called photons.
Step 4: Realize that this discovery was important because it demonstrated that energy is not continuous but comes in small packets (quanta).
Step 5: Understand that the photoelectric effect helped to establish the field of quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of very small particles.
