Tomo Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 If a single photon reflects/refracts from an interface does it obey the laws of reflection and refraction (i.e. angle of incidence = angle of reflection & Snells Law) or would its new trajectory be random. From what I've understood from lectures, the laws of reflection and refraction only work because of the interference between the millions(?) of photons that hit the interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qfwfq Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Uhm, it isn't interference between the millions of photons, no, the interference occurs for single photons. This can be demonstrated by a classic 20th century experiment which is often performed in labs by university students. I did so, back in the '80s, with a couple of other students. One thing to understand about quantum mechanics is that the outcome will be random for the individual case, the interference determines probability. It takes some good math to understand it properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trapit Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 As there is an interaction with the surface changes during the process' the trajectory cannot be completely random.And as to my knowledge, i think the law works with every photon,but the thing is that the probability of the predicted movement or measurement will decrease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkain101 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Speaking of photons, Why is it that no matter what kind of element, when it is heated up enough it shines the same red glow, to orange and then onward. Different materials all reflect different frequencies of light (hence the color) and absorb different frequencies, but all materials emmit generally the same frequency of visible light when they are excited enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qfwfq Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 Why is it that no matter what kind of element, when it is heated up enough it shines the same red glow, to orange and then onward.Black body spectrum, explained by Max Planck by his hypothethis which led to the development of quantum mechanics. Before Planck's hypothesis the spectrum couldn't be explained because of the so-called ultraviolet catastrophy. By supposing that high frequency waves can't be in arbitrarily small energies, Planck proposed the explanation of the observed distribution of frequencies. And how correct his explanation has turned out to be!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted January 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 Uhm, it isn't interference between the millions of photons, no, the interference occurs for single photons. This can be demonstrated by a classic 20th century experiment which is often performed in labs by university students. I did so, back in the '80s, with a couple of other students. One thing to understand about quantum mechanics is that the outcome will be random for the individual case, the interference determines probability. It takes some good math to understand it properly. Thanks for that. I forgot about the double slit experiment where one photon interferes with itself to produce an interference distribution (which I guess is the experiment that you were referring to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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