3 ms·
Electrons aren't unique in not having identities. Photons of the same wavelength are similarly fungible if I remember right, though it's a little more defensibl
by AgentME 2y ago
Electrons aren't unique in not having identities. Photons of the same wavelength are similarly fungible if I remember right, though it's a little more defensible to call the reflected light not the same photons since the original photons are transformed to something we don't call photons before photons are produced again.
- adonovan 2y agoYeah, I meant to say "photon" in my last sentence; but the point is equally true for electrons.
- doodlebugging 2y agoBut at a reflection event you aren't producing a new photon, you are only reflecting a portion of the original determined by the refractive indices of the reflection interface. At that interface, part of the original photon is reflected and the rest is transmitted across the interface as a new photon and both have a modified bandwidth relative to the parent photon. So the one you see reflected is the same photon after modification by the medium it traversed and the transmitted components escape your view unless you are monitoring the other side of the medium.
- wizzwizz4 2y agoThat would imply a frequency shift, which clearly doesn't happen (mirrors don't redshift the light that hits them).
- ASalazarMX 2y agoI balked at that too, because infinite mirrors and mirror houses also don't show any wavelenght shift no matter how many reflections they do. They do change perceived amplitude, as no mirror is perfectly reflective.
- Jerrrry 2y agoBlue, but it's more to do with manufacturing defects and the minerals used for the mirrors.
- mmmBacon 2y agoA photon is indivisible that’s the quantum nature of light. You aren’t reflecting a part of it. To do so is a classical wave interpretation of light. The photon after reflection is not the same photon.