Everything We Knew about Light is Wrong

Everything We Knew about Light is Wrong
Copyright ? 2008 Sunil Thakur
http://www.wbabin.net/physics/thakur1.pdf

Article is based on the chapter, ?Nature of Light? from the book, ?Nature of Reality?.

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Zitat:

Abstract: Nature of light remains an enigma even though in QED we have one of the most robust theories of physics. In this paper, I have examined all aspects of nature of light and role it plays in our sense of sight. As we will soon find out, as far as nature of electromagnetic radiation is concerned, things are not as bright and clear as we think they are. If our understanding of light requires a change then almost all major theories will require a change therefore it is very important that we are sure about what light is. Key-Words: Electromagnetic Radiation, Wave-Particle Duality, Sense of Sight Introduction Wave-particle duality gives us an uneasy feeling that probably we do not know all that we need to know about nature of light or electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves in the visible spectrum provides us best chance of understanding the language that waves speak as it is easier for us to relate our observations of electromagnetic waves with light as qualia for us. Due to paucity of space, I will not discuss the theoretical aspects of wave-particle duality esp. as these problems are well documented and well understood. I will briefly discuss the main issues so that the issues involved with the problem can be identified. Few people understand nature of light better than Einstein but this is what Einstein has to say about nature of light, ?All these fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the answer to the question, 'What are light quanta?? Is Einstein concerned because of wave-particle duality or is there something else in his mind. Einstein elaborates, ???There are therefore now two theories of light, both indispensable, and - as one must admit today in spite of twenty years of tremendous effort on the part of theoretical physicists - without any logical connections.? Immediate way-out of the problem of wave particle duality is suggested by Neil Bohr through his complementarity Principle but it is ?Quantum electrodynamics? (QED) that makes first logical attempt to combine the particle theory and the wave theory of light into one whole. Unfortunately, most of the basic questions related to the nature of light still remain unanswered and nature of light continues to be an enigma. Issue of wave-particle duality gets compounded with Louise De Broglie?s suggestion that every particle is also a wave. It is quite an imaginative suggestion, in fact it sounds like an absurd idea but it is experimentally confirmed by Clinton Davisson. Strange are the ways of nature, or so it seems to a mind that entertains duality. We will start with the exploration of visible light with the examination of the role that light plays in sense of sight. The basic idea here is to understand light as qualia and then extent this knowledge to light as physical entity. Basic physics of sense of sight is very simple. We can see an object when our eyes can absorb the photons emitted by the object or the photons reflected off the object. However, dark-adopted human eye can detect a single photon. Single photon does not get registered in the brain but it does not change the fact that we can see a single photon without absorbing it. Whereas, we cannot see the sun even when our eyes can absorb the photons emitted by the object. First observation suggests that we can see an object even when our eyes do not absorb the photons emitted or reflected by that object and second observation suggests that we cannot see an object even when our eyes can absorb the photons emitted by that object. Evidently, we can sense light wherever it is, provided it is in the perceivable range of our eyes. Obviously, as far as nature of light is concerned, things are not as bright and clear as we think they are. (Zitatende)

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Everything We Knew about Light is Wrong
http://www.wbabin.net/physics/thakur1.pdf



Beste Gr??e Ekkehard Friebe

Dieser Beitrag wurde schon 1 mal editiert, zum letzten mal von Ekkehard Friebe am 14.10.2008 12:45.