All Questions
133
questions
1
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What is light? how is it connected to electromagnetic radiation?
I am trying to understand how light works and electromagnetic radiation, from what I understand charges cause disturbances in electric fields, which triggers a magnetic field, and then the back and ...
0
votes
0
answers
32
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What is the speed of light during reflection? [duplicate]
What is the speed of light in a vacuum when the light reflects off of a mirror?
- 331
3
votes
1
answer
109
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How is it possible that photons already move at the speed of light the moment they pop into existence? [duplicate]
This is a thought experiment and I might be horribly wrong. If we have an electron-positron annihilation a photon pops into existence. This photon is then supposedly moving at speed of light at the ...
0
votes
2
answers
63
views
Which factors determines whether a photon is absorbed? [duplicate]
After some research, I figured out that all EM waves/photons are absorbed by atoms by exciting an electron from an orbital to an other. However, atoms emit only certain EM waves with specific ...
- 167
-2
votes
1
answer
87
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Why does there need to be a particle representation of light?
Why does there need to be a particle representation of light? Doesn't light as a wave explained the observations of the photoelectric perfectly? When the frequency of light is increased, the speed of ...
1
vote
2
answers
408
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If photons are massless, how are they reflected and blocked by something that has mass? Shouldn't they pass right through any object?
If photons are massless, how do they get reflected, blocked when something comes in its way? Shouldn't the particle just pass right through any object?
- 351
5
votes
3
answers
1k
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Why does light interact with normal matter but not with other light?
Why does light interact with normal matter but not with other light?
Assumptions:
Light does not interact with other light at all.
Light does interact with other matter, i.e reflection/refraction.
6
votes
3
answers
837
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"Artificially" time dilated photons
If you bang on the table you create a single thump, but if you keep doing so with shorter and shorter intervals, eventually it'll start to sound like a note with a particular pitch.
Now, if I used a ...
- 313
0
votes
0
answers
57
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How to interpret light and photon?
I've been trying to solidify my understanding on properties of light and this is what my understanding is so far:
Light is an EM wave that travels in a constant speed C.
Light has a quantized energy ...
- 275
1
vote
1
answer
69
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If finite number of photons leave a source, would certain solid angles be dark?
If a light source emits light, and due to the inverse square law “energy flux” (number of photons passing through a given area) decreases rapidly. Then at some distance away from the source there ...
- 121
1
vote
4
answers
87
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Seeing trajectory of light
I had gone through a few posts on this topic in this community,however the doubt i have is different from them a bit. There it was said that we do not actually see a laser beam unless they are ...
- 1,179
-2
votes
1
answer
90
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Light have mass? [duplicate]
So, I am a very very beginner at this physics stuff and I came across light being made of photons. Later, I started to think Light should have mass right?. Google said no. Also, doesn't something need ...
- 19
1
vote
0
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134
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Feynman's view about light
Professor Feynman, in his “QED: The strange theory of light and matter”, states at page 15:
“I want to emphasize that light comes in this form - particles. It is very important to know that light ...
- 53
8
votes
2
answers
2k
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Failure of Newton's corpuscular theory and success of photon theory of light
Corpuscular theory of light States that:
Light is made up of small discrete particles called "corpuscles" (little particles) which travel in a straight line with a finite velocity.
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- 267
3
votes
1
answer
204
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Can there be a single ray of light?
My physics teacher told me that a beam of light is a collection of rays of light and there cannot be a single absolute ray of light. Is this true?
