So I know that photons travel in waves, but is that like a straight up and down wave? Or is it more like a cork screw?
Why not just straight? I’m guessing the rudimentary answer has something to do with energy?
How do we know this?
In: 6
A photon is a localized disturbance of the electromagnetic field.
What does this mean?
Well, when magnetic force builds in one direction, electrical field strength wanes in another direction, one which is normal to the magnetic field’s line of force. When magnetic field strength peaks, electric field strength is nil, the cycle reverses, with magnetic and electric fields bouncing energy back and forth between the electric and magnetic fields, kind of like two adjacent layers of frictionless Jello, each occupying a
its own distinct domain within the electromagnetic field.
Though instantaneous in origin, the photon propagates as a wave-front, a discrete series of oscillations (Jello wiggles) of both finite amplitude and frequency.
A photon could be a short but powerful gamma ray of a length not bigger than a proton. Or a photon could be a kilometers’ long radio wave.
A good analogy for the photon would be a packet of wiggles. In other words: a particle.
Photons come into existence instantaneously as if someone were to pluck the center of a Jello-filled swimming pool.
Each wiggle packet conveys a finite amount of energy to whatever it interacts with, according to how much wiggle the packet has. More packets deliver more wiggles, and thus more energy.
As a field disturbance, the photon propagates in all directions, like the wave from a stone thrown into a pond.
When this wave encounters the double slit for instance, it forms two beams of new origin. Light which diffracts off the sides of each slit interferest with itself to create an interference pattern on a target screen. Attempting to measure photonic energy as it passes through a slit disrupts the photon’s characteristics, eliminating it’s potential to interfere with the version of itself which transited the other slit.
This is why you get a diffraction pattern, even when you send just one photon at a time. And this why when you try to measure a photon’s passage through the double slit, its interference pattern disappears.
Latest Answers