All Questions
Tagged with refraction photons
74
questions
85
votes
4
answers
40k
views
What is the mechanism behind the slowdown of light/photons in a transparent medium?
So light travels slower in glass (for example) than in a vacuum. What causes light to slow down? Or: How does it slow down? If light passes through the medium, is it not essentially traveling in the "...
- 1,063
45
votes
3
answers
8k
views
How does light re-accelerate after slowing down? [duplicate]
Light travels at speed x through a vacuum, and then it encounters a physical medium and slows down, only to leave the physical medium and re-enter vacuum. The speed of light immediately re-accelerates ...
- 411
24
votes
1
answer
27k
views
How does a photon travel through glass?
This was discussed in an answer to a related question but I think that it deserves a separate and, hopefully, more clear answer.
Consider a single photon ($\lambda$=532 nm) traveling through a plate ...
- 4,700
23
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How can my window not scramble the image of my yard?
How can an image pass through a window if the atoms in the glass randomly emit photons in any direction?
I've read that glass is transparent because the atoms don't readily adsorb visible light, so it ...
- 2,613
12
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Do photons actually slow down in a medium, or is the speed decrease just apparent? [duplicate]
Some places I've read flat out say light actually slows down in a medium, some say the speed decresae is just apparent but not real and that the photons still travel at the constant speed of light.
I'...
- 137
11
votes
6
answers
15k
views
Do photons have acceleration?
Photons travel at the fastest speed in our universe, the speed of light.
Do photons have acceleration?
- 1,037
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do photons age in a medium?
According to special relativity, time starts to slow down as we increase our speed and eventually stops once we get to the speed of light. By that logic, photons don't age in a vacuum state as, to us, ...
user34284
11
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Photon energy - momentum in matter
$E = h\nu$ and $P = h\nu/c$ in vacuum.
If a photon enters water, its frequency $\nu$ doesn't change.
What are its energy and momentum: $h\nu$ and $h\nu/c$ ?
Since part of its energy and momentum have ...
- 1,343
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Rainbow Blackhole?
Can white light be broken into its component colors when gravitationally shifted by a black hole, in a manner similar to what a prism does?
http://www.physics.utah.edu/~bromley/blackhole/index.html
- 1
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why is it that, when light travels in a medium, we say it's made of "quasiparticles"?
I get why, in this model, light isn't really "made of" photons, because photons, by definition have zero mass and travel at $c$, whereas these quasiparticles, if I understand correctly, do ...
- 2,327
7
votes
2
answers
518
views
Can you touch something which is massless?
Can one touch massless things? If not then why the light get scattered by the tiny particles present in air? If light is massless how can it hit particles or dust to get scattered?
$$**OR**$$
The ...
- 807
6
votes
3
answers
903
views
What is the speed of a photon in water?
What is the speed of light in water? The speed of light in vacuum, divided by the index of refraction for water. And what is the speed of a photon in water?
6
votes
1
answer
6k
views
How does sun light after it has passed window's pane still heat me up?
I believe it is so because most of photons' energy has successfully passed the glass. But is it so? And how can I roughly estimate part of light's energy which will pass obstacles like glass?
And how ...
- 310
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Why does light not slow down?
Clearly light bounces off of things, going really really fast. I'm curious to understand how light interacts with matter in order to bounce without:
Applying force to the object
Losing speed
So my ...
4
votes
1
answer
140
views
What do you 'see' if you are stationary relative to a photon in a refractive medium?
A particle with zero rest energy/mass must always be at $c$ in all referentials, even why, if you could get to its referential it would have zero total energy, effectively not existing in that ...
- 223