Question

Newton postulated his corpuscular theory of light on the basis of
A. Newton’s rings
B. Rectilinear propagation of light
C. Colour through thin films
D. Dispersion of white light into columns

Answer 1

Hint:- This question is based on the theory of laws of motion of a particle. Newton's first law of motion states that every particle travels in a straight line with a constant velocity unless disturbed by an external force. And we also know that the light behaves as a particle. So, Here we use this theory to solve this question.

Complete step by step answer:
Newton's corpuscular theory was based on postulates as follows:
1. Newton proposed that a source of light emits many minute, elastic, rigid and massless particles called corpuscles.
2. These particles travel through a transparent medium at very high speed in all directions along a straight line.
3. These corpuscles enter our eyes and produce the sensation of vision.
4. Due to different sizes of the corpuscles, they produce different colours.
5. These light particles are repelled by a reflecting surface and attracted by transparent materials.
So, from the above given options for this question we can say that Newton's corpuscular theory is based on Rectilinear propagation of light.

So the correct option is (B).
We should remember that Newton's corpuscular theory fails to explain simultaneous phenomena of partial reflection and refraction on the surface of transparent medium such as glass or water. According to this theory, velocity of light is larger in the denser medium than in the rarer medium, experimentally it is proved wrong.

Note:- Sometimes, we only focus on the wave theory of light and forget that light has dual nature that satisfies a large number of phenomena in the universe. Here the theory is based on the particle nature of light.