If visible light is a wave, does that mean that in between the peaks of the wave there are periods of darkness? Can we see them?
In: Physics
no. the photons are moving in a spiral, not blinking in and out of existence.
But even if they were its “flickering” at a minimum of 430 terahertz. Your eye cant tell if something is flickering faster than 90 hertz or so (maybe as high as 500 hertz). so you wouldnt notice
No. It’s important to understand that the typical sine waves we use to represent electromagnetic waves is just a representation. The up and down motion isn’t actual physical motion, and it doesn’t represent “on” or “off” or moving in between “on” or “off.” it’s just a mathematical model of the oscillations in the electric and magnetic fields.
Light flickers between an electric field and a magnetic field, it does not flicker in brightness. An electric field is like when you have a static charge, rubbing a balloon against your hair. A magnetic field is like what is next to a magnet, and if you push two magnets together sometimes they stick and sometimes they repel. As a photon travels it is vibrating back and forth between having a small electric field and a small magnetic field.
The presence of a field alone is not “light”. The field comes and goes. A static electric field is not light, and will not travel or activate a light sensor. The light is the sustained wave process, there is no “light” without the presence of the whole ongoing wave.
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