Most of the time, light behaves as a wave and it is categorized as one of the electromagnetic waves because it is made of both electric and magnetic fields. Electromagnetic fields perpendicularly oscillate to the direction of wave travel and are perpendicular to each other. As a result of which, they are known as transverse waves. A few characteristics of light are as follows:

• While dealing with light waves, we deal with the sine waveform. The period of the waveform is one full 0 to 360-degree sweep.
• Light waves have two important characteristics known as wavelength and frequency.
• The distance between the peaks of the wave is known as the wavelength. In the case of a light wave, the wavelengths are in the order of nanometers.
• Frequency is the number of waves that will cross past a point in a second.
• The relationship between wavelength and frequency is given by the equation:

\(f = \frac{1}{T}\)

• The speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant which is 3 x 10⁸ m/s.
• As proposed by Einstein, light is made of tiny packets of energy known as photons. The formula devised by Planck determines the energy of a photon and it also shows that the energy is directly proportional to the frequency of the light.

E = hf

where h is the Planck’s constant 6.63 x 10^-34 Joule-Second.