All Questions
34
questions
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2
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63
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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
7
votes
2
answers
2k
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How does quantum mechanics explain the color of macroscopic objects?
I am familiar with two explanations for the phenomenon of visible color.
The first is that, for any given object, there are some wavelengths of light it reflects and some it absorbs. The reflected ...
11
votes
4
answers
3k
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If a polarized light wave is indistinguishable from its original self after being flipped 180°, why doesn't a photon have a spin of two?
The spin of a photon has a counterpart in classical physics, it's polarization, right?
And if you spin a polarized light wave by 180°, (or pi radians), it is now the same as before, correct?
So why ...
- 4,509
0
votes
2
answers
223
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Cauchy-Schwarz inequality in terms of intensity measurements
Hi I was reading Introductory Quantum Optics by Gerry and Knight, particularly the part about higher degrees of coherence (Section 5.4), and in there they write:
Now according to Cauchy’s inequality ...
-2
votes
1
answer
206
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Can you see a photon from the side?
I'm trying to understand the shape and size of individual quantum particles.
According to the book Tales of the Quantum the quantum wave of a photon in the visible range is a few centimetres wide. The ...
- 4,783
3
votes
1
answer
370
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Does light reflect from silver because of the difference in refractive index?
In a discussion with a friend, he seemed to be saying that reflection of light happens because of the difference in refractive index between two media, implying that that is the only reason reflection ...
- 1,369
0
votes
1
answer
66
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Does the minimum slit width change with different photon frequencies?
Send white light through a vertical polarizer and then through a second horizontal gap that is just wide enough to let all the light through. Now slowly close the second gap until it becomes a slit. ...
- 4,083
2
votes
0
answers
37
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Atoms do not have colour, but objects which are nothing but the assembly of atoms have colour! How is that possible? [duplicate]
Objects are made up of atoms, and objects have colour, but atoms, as my understanding goes, do not have colour, so how is it possible that colourless atoms form objects which have colour?
- 2,517
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3
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102
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Why don't appear all objects to be white?
When you shine light on an atom, it absorbs some of the wavelenghts; the rest determine its color. However, as far as I've understood, the absorbed wavelenghts exite the electrones moving them to a ...
- 41
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votes
1
answer
306
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Why do atoms become unstable on higher energy levels?
In spectroscopy, atoms absorp light of specific wavelenghts that move the electrons to higher energy levels.
The atom becomes unstable at some point and re-emits these wavelenghts to get to its ...
- 41
1
vote
0
answers
93
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Effect of metal disks on diffraction of light [closed]
Recently, I started to go deeper into physics. I don't speak English well, so I'm sorry. This experiment was carried out in Hungary 25 years ago. The measurement results were not accepted by the ...
- 11
1
vote
2
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344
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Rayleigh scattering problem
We read everywhere that the blue sky is due to the white light from the sun interacting with the air molecules. But the blue wavelength is around 420 nm, the O2 and N2 molecules around 0.3 nm that is ...
- 25
1
vote
0
answers
50
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Is it possible to manipulate the polarization of unpolarized light within a medium via Electric field?
You see this setup above. There is an unpolarized light source travelling through a transparent dielectric medium. Think of this triangular shaped medium as a capacitor. there are 3 conductive sides ...
- 175
-1
votes
1
answer
636
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Lloyd's mirror problem [closed]
My question is about the reflection of the interference pattern from the screen to the mirror itself in the(Image B), as you can see in the mirror the reflected interference pattern is similar to ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
51
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Does polarized light come from being transmitted through something or can it be emitted?
In other words is polarized light ever directly emitted?
- 4,083