3 ms·
Can you really even say it's the same photon performing the random walk? Maybe you could say it's the same unique packet of energy, but my understanding is that
by x3n0ph3n3 11y ago
Can you really even say it's the same photon performing the random walk? Maybe you could say it's the same unique packet of energy, but my understanding is that the photon is effectively annihilated when an atom absorbs its energy.
- effie 11y agoIndeed. The whole idea of photons as particles scattering off matter particles in the sun is just a very simplified model of energy transport. The results may fit well observations, but actually such mechanism is quite far from the basic physical picture of charged particle interaction, which is very complicated process (retarded fields of immense number of particles acting on each other ... hard to simulate already for N=2).
- Sharlin 11y agoPhotons and other elementary particles have no identity, so the distinction doesn't really exist. We can talk about the "same" photon as a useful shortcut, that's all.