Crazy Physics Question

[Mervyn]

I think people are assuming once light enters this medium, it slows down instantly, causing a backlog , but since the post indicated light traveled as slow as 60 kph, that implies that is does in some instances travel faster and that also implies there is a gradual change of speed.

 

[Yoga Face]

Well IMHO, when light hits a wall or solid object, it lights up the spot on the wall. It literally stops at the wall and dissipates in energy, only to be replenished by the continual stream of photons.

I believe some of the light is absorbed by the wall and what we see is the reflected light

Different colors absorb different light waves

 

[Yoga Face]

All right, you Einsteins, get back to work and pluck those chickens! What the fuck do you guys thing this is? This is not the Los Alamos National Laboratory for atomic research, and your not a bunch rocket scientist.

I want to be a rocket surgeon

 

[Ceiling Cat]

I want to be a rocket surgeon

I want to be a plastic sturgeon, so I can help the unfortunate of the world.

 

[GPIDEAL]

I believe some of the light is absorbed by the wall and what we see is the reflected light

Different colors absorb different light waves

Yes, I meant that when it 'stops' at the wall, it is absorbed or reflected. In fact, if the photons weren't there, you wouldn't see the wall or it's colour.

 

[GPIDEAL]

Interesting conjecture - or do you consider your statement to be scientifically accurate ?

It seems to me that there is a limit to how packed the light waves can become as the source of the light can last billions of years


But then again light can behave like a particle or a wave or both at the same time

Trying to imagine what light is is beyond our ability to grasp I suspect

If I recall, light is particles (photons) in a wave formation.

 

[GPIDEAL]

All right, you Einsteins, get back to work and pluck those chickens! What the fuck do you guys thing this is? This is not the Los Alamos National Laboratory for atomic research, and your not a bunch rocket scientist.

That doesn't mean that we can't get out of the kitchen to study physics.

 

[Stoo]

I'll give you the same answer that I used on a 4th year bio-physics final many, many years ago. "Who cares?"

Apparently, our Professor did, and I flunked the exam. (I actually did care, but had no idea how to solve the particular question... kinda like now.)

In all seriousness though, I think a good analogy for this would be to compare the light waves to a slinky. As the slinky comes up against a more dense medium, the "coils" that follow will jamb up, then spread out again once the medium changes again. If the slow-down approaches "stopped", the light will reflect, refract, or even change to heat...

 

[GPIDEAL]

Further to your reply Stoo, what happens to the light or photons under a magnifying glass, particularly when you focus to create heat?

 

[fuji]

What's really cool is that the entire expanding universe is one giant Red Light district.

 

[basketcase]

Thx Basketcase but it seems to me the time length of the source is highly relevant

If as the light is slowed down it becomes compacted then the longer the light shines the more compacted it becomes as more and more light enters than escapes
...

Except each photon of light is an individual entity so it is irrelevent what the next one or the previous one is doing. It also isn't really compacted. All that changes is the wavelength of that photon's movement (to keep the marathon analogy going, akin to the runner changing the length of each stride when they are running on a different surface - the runner himself does not get thinner). Also when the light 'escapes' (leaves the medium) it reverts to it's initial speed so there is no build-up.



As for asn, I'm only an engineer so all that theoretical stuff isn't where my mind is.

 

[GPIDEAL]

Except each photon of light is an individual entity so it is irrelevent what the next one or the previous one is doing. It also isn't really compacted. All that changes is the wavelength of that photon's movement (to keep the marathon analogy going, akin to the runner changing the length of each stride when they are running on a different surface - the runner himself does not get thinner). Also when the light 'escapes' (leaves the medium) it reverts to it's initial speed so there is no build-up.



As for asn, I'm only an engineer so all that theoretical stuff isn't where my mind is.

OK, so if the wavelengh shortens, then there's some sort of compaction in the space between the bundles of photons.

 

[basketcase]

As in my original analogy.

 

[OnTheWayOut]

fuckin nerds

 

[Mervyn]

i) you cannot change the speed of light in a vacuum.

What about gravity ?

 

[Dong Joe]

This is how I imagine light passes through a slower medium:

_____/_____/_____/_____/_____/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_____/_____/_____/_____/_____/

There is no 'bunching up' of the light going all the way back to its source!

Light slows down all the time without this effect, like when it passes through water or alcohol. The neat thing is it speeds back up upon exit!

Credit to the OP for an interesting thread, but I was unable to google the article in question. Can someone post up this article?

 

[GPIDEAL]

This is how I imagine light passes through a slower medium:

_____/_____/_____/_____/_____/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_____/_____/_____/_____/_____/

There is no 'bunching up' of the light going all the way back to its source!

Light slows down all the time without this effect, like when it passes through water or alcohol. The neat thing is it speeds back up upon exit!

Credit to the OP for an interesting thread, but I was unable to google the article in question. Can someone post up this article?

Well Dong Joe, Einstein himself said that imagination was more important than education or knowledge. Your illustration is very good.

 

[traveler196]

I'll give you the same answer that I used on a 4th year bio-physics final many, many years ago. "Who cares?"

Apparently, our Professor did, and I flunked the exam. (I actually did care, but had no idea how to solve the particular question... kinda like now.)

This was a poor answer for your exam, but the perfect answer for here.

 

[Brandon123]

I thought there was nothing faster than the speed of light, not sure how light in a nuclear reactors goes faster than the speed of light.

 

[fuji]

I thought there was nothing faster than the speed of light, not sure how light in a nuclear reactors goes faster than the speed of light.

There's nothing faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. That's different than the speed at which a photon travels through a medium like glass. In the nuclear reactor some particles are accelerated to high speeds and pass through material faster than the speed of photons travel through that material, but still slower than the speed of light in a vacuum.