say a point in space gives off a flash of light, and you drew a sphere with a lightyear radius from that point. does every point on the sphere see that flash of light after a lightyear (in theory, pretend theres nothing between the point and the sphere), or are there areas which would not see the flash because light doesnt come exactly that direction?
ive wondered this ever since i was given the analogy of a ripple in a pond, and how that spreads out pretty uniformly and continuously away from the point. but ripples get weaker as they spread farther from the center, i mean before they collide with walls or anything, don't they? i haven't actually seen one propogate long enough to notice.
the relation here i think is that light would have to account for similar loss by not being continuous, or it would need to lose frequency as it got farther out.
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Anonymous2006-12-20 18:12
No, you can make the radius as small as you want. The sphere has an infinite number of points, and there are only a finite number of them which would ever see the light. I don't know anything about optics or waves, but I know that there isn't an infinite amount of anything. Except for perhaps morons on /sci/.
You forget that photons exhibit both wave and particle properties. Assuming that the light is unobstructed and neglecting gravity, the wave density at any point on the will be the same.
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Anonymous2006-12-23 0:40
>>4
BUT PIXELS ARE THE SMALL SQUARES ON MY MONITOR
The speed of light is constant. It does not loose frequency or momentum ro anything like that because of distance traveled or time. Therefor, the light will reach each point at the same time.
If I got your reference to "direction" coreclty, then the answer would be the same. For example, if come occurence caused a lot of light to travel in one direction, and a little light travling to another direction, both intensities would still reach the points at the same time because the speed of light is constant, regardess of inntensity.
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Anonymous2006-12-23 6:25
ror voxels
sigh
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Anonymous2006-12-23 11:22
>>8
OP here,
the concern wasn't so much the timing, but the light crossing every point on the sphere thing. it just seems weird because you could just take larger and larger spheres and it would still be hitting every point? its like more light is coming from somewhere to fill in the gaps. i know waves arent exactly traveling in straight lines or in specific places, though.
The light becomes less intense as the sphere expands. So the light still hits everywhere on the sphere, just not as brightly. There is no "filling the gaps" required.
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Anonymous2006-12-23 14:08
light is particles, shitheads.
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Anonymous2006-12-23 15:09
>>12
LEARN HOW TO QUANTUM PHYSICS BEFORE YOU PRETEND YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, SHITHEAD.
from what I've heard of the double-slit experiment it is possible to send just one photon through, and that photon doesn't hit/register everywhere, only on one spot.
but I know nothing and this is 4chan so I'm posting anyway.
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Anonymous2006-12-28 21:46
lol, "a ball of light", "quantization of space", clearly you are all making this up as you read Wikipedia articles
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Anonymous2006-12-29 2:02
I think I see what you are getting at :
<light> | <space> | <some detector>
only 3D ?
You need to understand that the light exhibits both wave and particle properties. These properties exist simultaneously and there is no way tell pick one from the other UNTIL YOU LOOK. ie: in the space the light acts as a wave (say sound in air) and simply propagates through the entire sphere losing intensity as it goes (read: gets dimmer) at any point along your sphere you have an energy density (imagine a little square on your sphere's edge.) this density can be though of in terms of particles per unit area. This density is the same for any "square" (let's say 1m) on the surface of your sphere at some distance from the source. That is to say that for any part of the sphere if you stick your face there and look you have the same number of particles hitting any given point. The light propagates as a wave through the medium, but if you look at any point for particles you will find them based off of that energy density for particles. If you look at any point for some wave properties (say a double slit experiment) then you see nothing of the particle properties and will find only the wave properties of the light.
Clear as mud ? Take some quantum physics courses and you'll get more confused.. trust me.
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Anonymous2006-12-29 14:49
This takes no proof, just logic
Look at stars. Are they as bright when they are far away? No. So obviously light gets less intense over long distances, as it "spreads out".
Fin
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Anonymous2006-12-29 17:21
>>22
That wasn't even the question asked, halfwit.
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Anonymous2006-12-31 17:55
The light reaches each point on the sphere.
The reason is that the photons are ultimitly a wave-partical. They are EM radiation. While the intensity decreases relative to the size of the sphere {i.e. Shit-quick}, the wave still spreads out to cover all the availible area. With nothing in the way it will fill the universe, assuming it's a perfect sphere and the light started from dead-centre.