Some light sources, such as neon lights, give off only certain specific frequencies of light, a small set of distinct pure colors determined by neon's atomic structure. Matter-the "stuff" of the universe consisting of particles such as electrons and atoms-exhibits wavelike behavior too.
Light behaves in some aspects like particles and in other aspects like waves. For a more complete history of the subject, see History of quantum mechanics. It describes these concepts in roughly the order in which they were first discovered. This article describes how physicists discovered the limitations of classical physics and developed the main concepts of the quantum theory that replaced it in the early decades of the 20th century. The desire to resolve inconsistencies between observed phenomena and classical theory led to two major revolutions in physics that created a shift in the original scientific paradigm: the theory of relativity and the development of quantum mechanics.
However, towards the end of the 19th century, scientists discovered phenomena in both the large ( macro) and the small ( micro) worlds that classical physics could not explain. Classical physics is still used in much of modern science and technology.
By contrast, classical physics explains matter and energy only on a scale familiar to human experience, including the behavior of astronomical bodies such as the moon. Quantum mechanics is the study of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atomic and subatomic particles.
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