How does a photon get around? Seeing as it travels at the speed of light, wouldn't this break down Einsteins special relativity as you're dividing by 0? What is time for a photon? 1second for a photon would be how long for us? How long would a "photonmeter" be for us?
Is it all just "OH SHI- I DIVIDED BY ZERO!"?
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Anonymous2008-03-31 18:14
Sweet photons; I don't know if you're waves or particles, but you go down smooth.
1 second for photon = eternity for us
In the photon's reference frame, they exist for only an instant, and during that instant, they exist at all points of their trajectory.
And yet, if the universe is flat from a photon's view, how the fuck can it propagate in that direction as a wave?
And if there's quantum uncertainty in the photon's direction from our reference point, is the shape of the entire universe uncertain from the photon's frame of reference? I never quite got the interaction between relativity and quantum mechanics.
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Anonymous2008-04-01 1:57
Photons aren't subject to uncertainty
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Anonymous2008-04-01 9:28
>>10
Photons themselves may not be subject to uncertainty, but our understanding of them is based on the probability of their events.
Photons do nothing but go from one one electron to another.
Reflection and transmission are really the result of an electron picking up a photon and emitting a NEW photon.
>>12
This is a common mistake amongst physics students.
Never confuse the photon itself with the arrow or line, as the line is not associated with the photon.
The arrow is a PROBABILITY amplitude, that give, when squared, the PROBABILITY of a complete event.
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Anonymous2008-04-01 15:33
A photon occurs when an electron changes it's principle energy level when orbitting an atom's nucleus and returns to it's equilibrium. This results in the emission of an electric field and a magnetic field which oscillate in relation to each other and as a result do not expand uniformly like an ordinary field, the time it takes for 1 oscillation is it's frequency, the more energy it took to create the field initially determines how fast it oscillates, they travel at the speed of light as this is the speed at which emitted fields travel relative to all points of reference. Then there's special relativity, time-space continuum etc..
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Anonymous2008-04-01 16:09
How much damage would a photon torpedoe do if Kirk told Sulu to shoot one at my house?