All Questions
30
questions
-1
votes
0
answers
46
views
Is there a good quantum explanation of refraction? [duplicate]
I'm aware of the classical explanation of refraction which deals with light being a wave that gets "slowed" down while passing from a medium to another. One problem that I have with this ...
- 99
0
votes
0
answers
26
views
Why the photons are deflected during the refraction? [duplicate]
From what I learnt, when photons are passing throw a denser environnement with an positive angle (from the atmosphere to water for exemple), they are slow down. But I can't understand how this ...
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
Does light accelerate? [duplicate]
If considering the general formula for acceleration, ie.
Δ V/ΔT, we would get zero as the velocity of light is constant and does not change.
However, what about when photons travel through different ...
- 133
0
votes
0
answers
108
views
Do photons moving at $c$ slow down when entering a medium or take a longer path and only appear to slow down and what happens to time? [duplicate]
Imagine a photon leaving a vacuum and entering a medium, say, air. I have 2 questions:
Some claim that the photon is slowed by the medium so its speed becomes less than $c$. Is that true or does ...
- 29
0
votes
0
answers
40
views
Speed of light exiting a prism [duplicate]
When light travels through a medium, even a sparse medium, it slows down from the speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in that medium.
When that light re-enters a true vacuum, it will resume ...
3
votes
2
answers
306
views
Speed of photon
Background:
I originally asked this question
Does a single photon propagate with phase velocity or front velocity through a dispersive material? about the speed of a single photon in a dispersive ...
- 1,803
-1
votes
1
answer
95
views
What is the acceleration of light (photon) in vacuum? [duplicate]
We all know that the speed of light is 299792458m/s, but what is the acceleration of photons? That is to say, does the photon have a speed transition from zero to the speed of light?
- 39
0
votes
0
answers
59
views
According to SR, massless objects must travel at the vacuum speed of light, yet light slows down in a medium. So why isn't light massive? [duplicate]
So I've already asked a similar question on Quora and the askphysics forum on Reddit, but haven't gotten many helpful answers. I did get one good answer that said that light SOMETIMES gains mass in ...
- 2,327
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
1
vote
3
answers
479
views
Can photons only exist in the state of motion in a medium?
Photons are known to travel at a speed of $\rm 299 \ 792 \ 458 \ m / s$ in vacuum. Photons can be absorbed, or absorbed and re-emitted by matter. They slow down to $\rm 225,000,000 \ m/s$ in water ...
- 401
0
votes
1
answer
82
views
Can we slowdown speed of photons? [closed]
Can we slowdown speed of photons or light? If we slowdown the speed of photon can photon give us mass?
2
votes
2
answers
101
views
How do we know that light cannot travel faster than it does?
We assume the speed of light in vacuum is its maximum speed but can we not assume that it could be faster, or slower?
- 21
0
votes
1
answer
41
views
Change in color
We have studied that when light changes medium, its speed along with wavelength, changes. Does that means that if we are inside a pool of water and a red flash light is pointed towards us, it will ...
- 133
-1
votes
1
answer
486
views
Does light really slow down when moving through a transparent medium? [duplicate]
I assume its speed doesn't change but the photons get absorbed and destructed by the materials' atoms and then they emit new photons. Is that true?
- 19
0
votes
2
answers
534
views
Photon in refractive medium
When light enters a refractive medium, is speed changes according to the refractive index $n$ of the medium. The microscopic explanation for this relies on calculations involving waves.
There should ...
- 1,395