Cor·pus·cu·lar a. Pertaining to, or composed of, corpuscles, or small particles.
Corpuscular philosophy, that which attempts to account for the phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter.
Corpuscular theory Opt., the theory enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton, that light consists in the emission and rapid progression of minute particles or corpuscles. The theory is now generally rejected, and supplanted by the undulatory theory.
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E·mis·sion n.
1. The act of sending or throwing out; the act of sending forth or putting into circulation; issue; as, the emission of light from the sun; the emission of heat from a fire; the emission of bank notes.
2. That which is sent out, issued, or put in circulation at one time; issue; as, the emission was mostly blood.
Emission theory Physics, the theory of Newton, regarding light as consisting of emitted particles or corpuscles. See Corpuscular theory, under Corpuscular.
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corpuscular theory
n : (physics) the theory that light is transmitted as a stream
of particles [syn: corpuscular theory of light] [ant: wave
theory, wave theory]