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
The oscillation of photons does not stem from a force. The oscillation is not movement as you would normally think of it. What happens is, an electric field collapses and forms a magnetic field next to it as it collapses. This magnetic field then collapses and forms an electric field next to it. This then collapses, and it goes on… There is nothing physically jiggling around – just fields popping into and out of existence in a sine wave pattern.
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