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Huygen's Principle
The first proposer of the wave theory of light, Huygens, considered light to be a mechanical wave moving ina hypothetical medium whcih was named as ether. If we consider a surface a enclosing a light source S, the optical disturbance at any point beyond a must reach after crossing a. The particles of the surface a vibrate as the wave from S reaches there and these vibrations cause layer beyond to vibrate> we can thus assume that the particles on a act as new sources of light waves emitting spherical waves and disturbance at a point Z beyond a , is caused by the superposition of all these spherical waves coming from different points of a. Huygens called the particles spreading the vibrations beyond them as secondary sources and the spherical wavefronts emitted from these secondary sources as secondary wavelets.
Huygens principle may be stated in its general form as follows :
Various points of an arbitrary surface, when reached by a wavefront, become secondary sources of light emitting secondary wavelets. The disturbace beyond the surface results from the superposition of these secondary wavelets.