3 ms·
Without trying to think too much over it (still haven't had my morning coffee), I think your representation of light corresponds to a wave vision. However, per
by dr_zoidberg 11y ago
Without trying to think too much over it (still haven't had my morning coffee), I think your representation of light corresponds to a wave vision. However, per wave-particle duality, you can also consider light as moving photons (particle vision of light) and then yes, every single photon moves in a straight light (tries to). So it depends in how you're trying to see light.
- jwmerrill 11y agoAs far as I can tell, this "buckshot theory of photons" is a heuristic that is never actually formalized or used in serious calculations. In actual quantum optics calculations I have seen, a photon is a quantized excitation of a mode of an optical system, and it is definitely not localized to a moving point in space. There are "wave packets" that are somewhat localized in space and move together, but these are not the same as "photons".
- dr_zoidberg 11y agoThe wave packets interpretation reminds me of Schrödinger, but I don't remember exactly why it was dropped back in the day (circa 1940). Sorry I'm so sloppy on these topics, I never studied them formally ("mathematically" if you will -- think what I did more like a "history of quantum mechanics" course) and it's also been a long since last read about.