I’ve seen one multiple educational videos that draw light as two orthogonal waves traversing through space. What is that trying to represent?What exactly is going up and down?
Furthermore, why do people often make the analogy that light acts like a ripple in a pond?
In: Physics
There is an electromagnetic quantum field (EMQF) permeating all of space. Electric fields and magnetic fields are classical representations of interactions involving this EMQF.
Light is a fluctuation in this EMQF, and this representation explains the photoelectric effect (which isn’t explained in classical electromagnetism).
If you think of a flash of lightning, it’s a lot like a rock tossed into a still pond. This large electric current agitates the gas atoms in the atmosphere, and when they relax they release light in all directions, like how the rock sends waves in all directions on the pond. The surface of the pond is 2D, and the EMQF is 3D, but otherwise it’s similar.
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