Maybe this is a stupid question, but I dont understand what force is driving photons in light beams to go up and down, making a sine wave. How often in which it oscillates determines the frequency yeah, but why does it do that in the first place? And why is it that when light is emitted, instead of scattering like individual particles, the photons stay in a line. Like there’s a force that is keeping them in a straight line, and theres a force causing them to oscillate. Maybe they arent forces, but I just don’t get it.
In: Physics
Consider a guitar string. You pluck it. It oscillates at a certain frequency. That oscillation has has other properties unique to that particular frequency. The “force” that keeps it oscillating is its disruption from the linear state, the zero-energy point. It has energy, and until it converts that energy into some other form, that energy will keep it perturbed from the restful state, and it will keep oscillating. It wants to go back to zero, but can’t, so long as it has energy. This is like a particle.
Now consider a moving wave. For example, if you’re making your bed, you might send a ripple down your sheets as you toss them over your bed. That traveling ripple is a moving wave, transferring energy from one position to another in space. This is like a moving particle.
When a photon is emitted, it is literally a ripple in the field of space, transferring energy (the disruption from rest) from place to another.
Latest Answers