ive been trying to figure out why some photons possess more energy than others, and my research keeps coming back to “the frequency is directly proportional to the energy present within the photon” however i am struggling to find any explanations as to why this is. i suppose that this links to my secondary question of what type of energy do photons even posess, because clearly there is energy that is able to have tangible impacts on the world, but i dont really understand what form it takes.
In: Physics
Go grab a slinky or a string it’ll help for this visualization. The energy of waves of all types are proportional to their frequency, this isn’t just true of electromagnetic waves aka photons. With your slinky, pay it down on the floor, and tie one end down (you’ll need a lot of space on the floor for this). Then holding the other end, make a standing wave of the lowest frequency you can. Now make a standing wave of a higher frequency. You’ll notice really quickly that it takes a lot more energy from you to keep the higher frequency wave going. In reality it’s a different type of wave than this causing photons, but it’s still a wave. The same principles apply. You can think of the wave components having to restore their positions faster aka moving up and down faster to complete a cycle in less time, if you want, it’s not super accurate but it works for the visualization. To that point, you would think it’s kinetic energy but it’s not….it’s…okay I don’t have an answer for that part it’s just energy? Everything is energy and it’s kind of a nebulous non intuitive thing at that scale.
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