The second fact is equally certain from the phenomena of what are called interferences, when the crest of one wave just overtakes the hollow of a preceding one, so that, if the two waves are of equal magnitude, the oscillations exactly neutralise one another, and two lights produce darkness. This is shown in a thousand different ways, and for all the different colours depending on different waves into which white light is analysed when passed through a prism. It is a certain result of wave-motion, and of wave-motion only, and therefore we know without a doubt that light is propagated by waves. But waves imply a medium through which waveforms are transmitted, for waves are nothing but the rhythmic motion of something which rises and falls, or oscillates symmetrically about a mean position of rest, slowly or quickly according to the less or greater elasticity of the medium. The waves which run along a large and slack wire are large and slow, those along a small and tightly stretched wire are small and quick; and from the data we possess as to light, its velocity of transmission, its refraction when its waves pass from one medium into another of different density, and from the distance between the waves as shown by interference, it is easy to calculate the lengths and vibratory periods of the waves, and the elasticity of the medium through which such waves are transmitted. The figures at which we arrive are truly extraordinary. The dimensions and rates of oscillations of the waves which produce the different colours of visible light have been measured and calculated with the greatest accuracy, and they are as follows: DIMENSIONS OF LIGHT-WAVES. +---------------+---------------+-----------------------+ | Colours |No. of waves in|No. of oscillations in | | | one inch | one second | +---------------+---------------+-----------------------+ |Red | 39,000 | 477,000,000,000,000 | |Orange | 42,000 | 506,000,000,000,000 | |Yellow | 44,000 | 535,000,000,000,000 | |Green | 47,000 | 577,000,000,000,000 | |Blue | 51,000 | 622,000,000,000,000 | |Indigo | 54,000 | 658,000,000,000,000 | |Violet | 57,000 | 699,000,000,000,000 | +---------------+---------------+-----------------------+ The elasticity of this wonderful medium is even more extraordinary.