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"You might think that you could devise an interferometer or other device which combines two beams in such a way as to cancel completely, without having observat
by aimor 4y ago
"You might think that you could devise an interferometer or other device which combines two beams in such a way as to cancel completely, without having observation points for which the wave crests align. In fact, I tried my best before writing this answer. I encourage you to try as well, but if you are careful to take everything into account, you will find it just isn't possible!"
Is there a video of someone attempting this? Is there a name for the experiment? It's been in the back of my mind for awhile and I'm still not sure what would happen.
- sigmoid10 4y agoNot sure what you mean, since it is clearly explained that such a device is mathematically impossible. A naive way to it would be with a Michelson interferometer where the two beams are displaced exactly by (2n+1)*pi radians and thus interfere so that the target detector sees nothing. Most physics undergraduates do this experiment at least once during their lab courses. But again, if you account for everything, you'll find that the "missing" energy at the detector just went back to the source via the mirror.
- aimor 4y agoI'd like to see a video showing the experiment with some of the more complex interferometer setups so that it's easier to understand the coherent effect. I've seen series like this before: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4E7FAAD67B171EBC https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4E7FAAD67B171EBC But they never seem to explain cases where the expected outputs are all destructive. I can dig down the reddit hole with lots of interesting ideas and explanations: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2fsol9/where_does_the_energy_go_during_the_destructive/ https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2fsol9/where_do... But what I really want to see is a good experiment on video that show the effect.