ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the classical description of light which took students from ancient times to the beginning of the mathematical era in the 1600s. The electromagnetic theory of light was developed by James Clerk Maxwell and then quantized by Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck and Albert Einstein. Maxwell's equations made a bold impact on the scientific community in many ways. Maxwell's seminal publication is considered to be one of the most important collections and integration of experimental observations, mathematical calculations and formulations, and unifying works in the history of physics tying electricity, magnetism, and light all into one elegant, though complex, mathematical theory. Thomas Young's famous experiment implemented a single card a little less than a millimeter thick into a beam of sunlight shining through an open window. Aspects of light and the double-slit experiment are debated and throw both light and shadow on modern theory.
