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« on: July 15, 2011, 06:15:59 PM » |
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I have a general understanding of the theory of light and the whole particle/wave idea but from the little I know it seems like it has a "mind" of its own when observed? So is light basically one of the biggest questions of the universe that humans will never be able to explain with the rational mind?
"and theory, until proven wrong, is fact."
I'm sorry.. no? Theory is NOT fact. Fact = Law there is no law of light, nor atom, nor evolution.. isn't this basic science? I don't know, maybe I'm ignorant on this whole science terminology -- enLIGHTen me, please?
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S_Z
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« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2011, 11:14:37 AM » |
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no, we have explained it and our explanation is theory. and theory, until proven wrong, is fact. light is both a particle and a wave. you can't just get a general idea and start saying statements like that. light doesn't have a "mind of it's own". the reason why it does someting different when observed is because we observed it. the observing affects the outcome. it is like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. we cannot know both the position and the speed. only 1 of each. because when measuring for the position the speed will change and when measuring the speed the position will change.
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Fusion_Physicist
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« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2011, 12:18:06 PM » |
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Hi there,
You ask a good question. The wave- particle duality is one odd aspect of light, but that duality is present in all quantum objects. Perhaps more intriguing about light is its speed. If something travels slower than light, then it is going into the future. Now, certain theories conflict one another, but some also say that an object that goes faster than light will go into the past.
Thus something that goes exactly at the speed of light should experience no time at all, and forever be in the present, whatever that is. This is odd, as photons can be emitted and absorbed. How can something that doesn't experience time be emitted or absorbed (that is, change form)? This is a question I asked my physics teacher in high school. He had a Masters degree in physics and couldn't answer it!
We humans may understand light completely some day, but I believe that before we do, we must find out how to unify quantum mechanics with relativity, something that Einstein himself tried to do for years and failed. This is the so called Theory of Everything, the holy grail of physics. Whatever we find out, I think the study of light will reveal key features to space and time that we as of yet do not know.
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TroupM
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« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2011, 07:18:35 AM » |
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This loophole in reality is h-bar. This is a quantum-scale constant that even Plank (who freaking discovered it, and after whom it is freaking named) dedicated a good deal of his life to removing from his equations. The Plank scale is where God rolls dice, Schrodinger's Cat is both, and Heisenberg is a bit uncertain.
The double-slit experiment, for example, is based on the collapse of quantum probability waves. This is an experiment you can reproduce in your home with glow-in-the-dark-paint, a digital camera, a CRT and some tinfoil (or, see sources). Probability collapse is, in fact, a thing.
Einstein's fixed light-speed may be called a Theory, but GPS wouldn't work if he was even a little bit wrong. Quantum non-locality is the loophole; it is so weird that we're not even trying to explain, it per se- we are just trying to define it more accurately and use it more effectively.
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Steve
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« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2011, 09:47:10 AM » |
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'never' is a long long time to guarantee that something will not be explained.
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