Light as particle and wave

danmand

Well-known member
Nov 28, 2003
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Good video, and a cool experiment. But I am irked at how EVERY single fucking news item (and this vid) is calling it a "photograph" of light. It isn't. It is a rendering of light's interaction with electrons. A model of what happened, based on the actual data of what happened... but not a photo of it.
 
I see the wave form but not exactly sure where the particle(s) are supposed to be


Great experiment that adds more evidence to the duality of light

BTW, why did the light wave stand still while they shot electrons at it??

You can slow light down by sending light through a medium, water is an example of this, but the medium is not what froze the light wave in place, so what was it??
 
Good video, and a cool experiment. But I am irked at how EVERY single fucking news item (and this vid) is calling it a "photograph" of light. It isn't. It is a rendering of light's interaction with electrons. A model of what happened, based on the actual data of what happened... but not a photo of it.

Good point

Now, how do use light waves to photograph light ??

Read my signature. Things are getting weirder and weirder the further we go down the rabbit hole. Perhaps we should take a lesson from Alice and not go there.
 
I see the wave form but not exactly sure where the particle(s) are supposed to be


Great experiment that adds more evidence to the duality of light

BTW, why did the light wave stand still while they shot electrons at it??

I can offer up two possible layman explanations ...

1) The optical tube that they used was designed so that the dimensions are fractions (or multiples) of the specific light wave shined at it. What happens is the same with sound, mechanical waves (vibrations) that is - it resonates and sets up a standing wave pattern. This is much the same idea behind the laser. So the optical tube will exhibit the troughs and peaks exhibited with any WAVE. When the electrons pass by - they will not react to the wave - but they do react to the light particles changing their energy by a specific packet of energy. The fact that you are detecting the new energy electrons is due to the light as a particle ... the pattern that you see represents the wave nature of light. This is happening simultaneously so you are effectively looking at the dual nature of light.

or 2) It's magic !
 
Good point

Now, how do use light waves to photograph light ??

Read my signature. Things are getting weirder and weirder the further we go down the rabbit hole. Perhaps we should take a lesson from Alice and not go there.

Alice didn't exist.

Some "Scientists" have to stop trying to experience the world only through their limited senses. Light doesn't give a fuck if you can see it or not.
As long as we use our senses to "confirm" the world around us, we are lost.
 
Some "Scientists" have to stop trying to experience the world only through their limited senses. Light doesn't give a fuck if you can see it or not.
As long as we use our senses to "confirm" the world around us, we are lost.

"Scientists" do not 'experience' the world through their 'limited senses'. They use 'instruments' to make measurements and observations. All the innovation and design that allows the technology that you are using to read this thread couldn't be possible if scientists were using unaided senses. Or are you referring to Scientology ?

I don't know about you but when I am hiking in the forest, I use my senses (particularly sight) to follow the path out of the forest without getting lost.
 
Alice didn't exist.

Some "Scientists" have to stop trying to experience the world only through their limited senses. Light doesn't give a fuck if you can see it or not.
As long as we use our senses to "confirm" the world around us, we are lost.

Not to get all Rene motherfucking Descartes on your ass, but you do realise that there really isn't anything that you CANNOT reduce to a result of your limited senses' perceptions, right? Any airy-fairy nonsense - *cough* - I mean thoughtful philosophical avenues of the spirit and mind, are still going to be rooted in what you have seen and perceived. Can't escape it, champ. Even "random" scare quotes can't "make" it be otherwise.