Thomas Young

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Thomas Young

Darryl Peterson

Professor Leggett

PHS 110-03

July 26, 2006

Thomas Young, English physician and physicist, was born on June 13, 1773, in Milverton, Somerset; and died May 10, 1829, in London. Young was the son of a banker, who at the tender age of two learned how to read. He attended boarding schools between 1780 and 1786, where he became fluent in several different languages. Young was also greatly knowledgeable in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, and in 1793 he entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London to study medicine, and by 1796 Young had obtained a medical doctorate.

After receiving his doctorate, Young went to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, where he directed his attention to scientific matters. However, Young left Emmanuel College in 1799 and set up a medical practice in London. During this time Young’s primary focus was sense perception, it was during this time that Young concluded that astigmatism results from an improperly curved cornea. It was also during this time that he turned to the study of light.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the nature of light was one of the most intriguing questions, there had been several attempts to prove whether light was made up of particles or if was in the form of waves. However, through his studies of light Young established the principle of interference of light, which resurrected the century-old wave theory of light.

In an experiment in 1802, Young showed how light from a single light source could pass through a narrow split and how the same light could be passed through two narrow slits and placed within a fraction of an inch of one another. Young sought to illustrate how the beams would overlap, and in the overlapping areas bands of bright light would alternate with bands of darkness.

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