I googled it, but i didn’t really understand.
Can someone simplify the explanation please?
Thank you 🙂
In: Physics
Technically the photons aren’t going slower, they just have to take a longer path to make it through the diamond, this is true of any material medium, the photons crash into atoms and are absorbed and re emitted not necessarily in the same direction it was going before, so it bounces around inside the diamond until it finds its way out, all of these movements happen at light speed, but when compared to light moving in a straight line it will appear to go slower
Well, this is true of any material. Light moves at a certain speed in the vacuum of space (about 3 × 10^8 km/s). But once something gets in the way, it slows down.
Think of driving on an open road. There’s nothing stopping you from driving really fast. But once more cars appear, you have to slow down. It’s sort of the same idea.
Water really slows light down, which is why things look distorted when looking at them through water.
It’s not just diamonds. It’s any medium that light can travel through. Air, water, glass, whatever. The answer is because there are other particles in the way. Every time a photon smacks into a particle it get’s absorbed, and then a new photon is emitted. This takes time, so light appears to go slower through mediums
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