The word hologram is formed from two Greek words: holos, meaning whole and gramma, meaning message.

Usually, a 3-D image, produced by capturing a laser light interface pattern on film, a hologram is the perfect practical example of the wave nature of light.

While engineers often think of light in terms of photons, light also is a wave.

The different colors of light humans see are different wavelengths of the light: red waves of light are the longest, blue waves are shorter and green waves are toward the middle of the spectrum.

Laser light is a pure source of light with only one color or wavelength containing orderly waves, which is most preferred for hologram technology. When two beams of laser light come together, they form an interference pattern.

Interference is the main form of a wave laser. Interference is illustrated when one throws two rocks in water, and the two wave patterns collide in the middle. It is more like wave disturbance. With that idea in mind, scientists used interference in the development of a hologram.

Laser light is split into two beams. One is reflected off an object and scatters to the film, while the other beam goes directly to the film.

The two beams meet at the film, causing an interference pattern of microscopic bright and dark lines.

The film captures this pattern, creating a hologram.