Why is it light with white curtains?

[homer]

How do you explain the as-predicted apparent shift of distant star when their light gets bent "around" another star in-between?

How do you explain the double-slit interference pattern experiment?




No, that's just individual rays exiting the laser at not-quite the same angle. There is no individual light ray spreading.

oh cool
even i can learned something
i had no idea really other than the absorbsion thingy



So what about the post i had about the headlight on my wheels
at night etc

[Usarka]

If light is a particle and is absorbed into the black curtains, will they all fall out when i beat them with a broom handle???

[nodrog:Me]

Dude, just get blinds!

[Usarka]

Dude, just get blinds!

Blinds

[Skyryder]

More worryingly, is light a particle or a wave?

Light is made up of photons. Wave is frequancey But you knew that

Skyryder

[Finn]

Light is made up of photons. Wave is frequancey But you knew that

Skyryder

Completely incorrect... but you knew that.

[Skyryder]

light cant be "unless your in space on the edge of a black hole " waves .
light dosnt bend unless the stated above happens
its definately in lines
but they do spread so a torch beam gets wider
as a lazer does get wider as well but not the same amount

Gravity can bend light. That's been proven. The difference between lazer and a torch is the way the photons are dispersed. Torch the photons are dispersed randomly hence the spread of light the lazer the photons are paralell to each other and remain that way regardless of distance.

Skyryder

[Skyryder]

Completely incorrect... but you knew that.

Not when I went to school. Never understood chemestry but physics...............??

A photon is the elementary particle that carries electromagnetic radiation. The classification of EM is determined by the frequency(wavelength) i.e gamma rays, x rays micro waves, visible light etc.

Now 'you' know that.

Skyryder

[Skyryder]

If light is a particle and is absorbed into the black curtains, will they all fall out when i beat them with a broom handle???

Only with a white broom handle. Use a black one and all that will happen is the light will travel from the curtain into the black handle.

Skyryder

[Skyryder]

Technically, it isn't both. It just has properties of both, but isn't one or the other. So that funny haired dude decided that they were little packets of energy, aka photons.

That's right.

SDkyryder

[MisterD]

The difference between lazer and a torch is the way the photons are dispersed. Torch the photons are dispersed randomly hence the spread of light the lazer the photons are paralell to each other and remain that way regardless of distance.

Wrong, I'm afraid. Laser is an acronym: Light Amplification (by) Stimulating Emission (of) Radiation.

The difference between a laser, and a torch is that a torch creates light by heating up a wire in a vacuum (a bulb) and you get a spread of wavelengths through the visible spectrum and into the Infra-red (aka heat).

A laser gives you one wavelength only, which can be anywhere in the spectrum from UV through to IR...it also works with other parts of the Electromagnetic spectrum, but then you have a Maser (M originally from "microwave").

To work correctly a laser cavity needs mirrors at each end to contain the amplification effect, with one of them being not quite 100% reflective to allow your beam to escape. It is these mirrors that condition the output from a traditional gas laser to be a collimated beam, however a diode laser has an output which diverges (at different angles, in parallel and perpendicular planes) so you have an elliptical "spot" which gets larger as you get further away from the device. Diode lasers (as used with optical fibres) therefore have external lenses to "launch" light into the fibre.

[Hitcher]

Light with white curtains...

Shouldn't that be Knights in White Satin? Or is that a bit moody and blue for a Friday afternoon?

[Bass]

If light is a particle and is absorbed into the black curtains, will they all fall out when i beat them with a broom handle???

Yes.
Yes they will, but use a long handle and stand well back.
Otherwise you will be blinded by the sudden flash (unless you beat gently of course)

[Bass]

Good post - however it is quanta - from which we get quantum mechanics. Max Planck is regarded as the father but I think there was another German who did the seminal work 20 years earlier.

As for light, it is wave/particle duality meaning that light exists both as a particle (photon) and a wave of energy (quanta) at the same time. However you'll only detect one state upon observation. A photon has energy but no mass - go figure.

Somebody said light was a charged particle - I thought photons were uncharged?

Can anyone explain the "absorption"? I know it happens but how? Are black curtains low energy? Sort of a frozen value of the universe of curtains?

Sheesh, no wonder Schroedinger's Cat went off to an alternative universe.

If you go a bit nuts, you can apply Planck's work to anything that moves and so calculate a wavelength. For example, a well hit golf ball has a wavelength of about 1.5 km as I recall. I have no idea how to build a diffraction grating for golf balls however, but I believe the wave properties are observable if you have sensitive enough equipment.
This of course explains why Tiger is a better golfer than I am.
He simply has a more expensive diffraction grating.

[Hitcher]

If you go a bit nuts, you can apply Planck's work to anything that moves and so calculate a wavelength.

I thought Planck's constant was about density i.e. as thick as two short plancks?