Does a photon actually accelerate? Sure seems like it always goes at light speed through whatever medium from its creation.
Speediest little fella.
Submitted 1 year ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/395d8638-016d-4f25-b3dc-7f0055f84fbb.webp
Comments
Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Vilian@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
well, if it get reflected and change direction it going to be at light speed, so it can be interpreted (probably incorrectly lol) that it “accelerated instantly to the other direction after the reflection”?
kogasa@programming.dev 1 year ago
This is an interesting question. Instant acceleration is mathematically implausible, but I don’t know if there’s a better physical interpretation for what happens to a bouncing photon.
AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social 1 year ago
This is acceleration with no mass and no resistance to medium.
Neato@kbin.social 1 year ago
Photons are born and die at c. They experience no time and have no frame of reference.
trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
They change direction and speed, right?
ziggurism@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The fact that light cannot change speed is one of the core axioms of relativity
marcos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No, they don’t. They can get absorbed and re-emitted, and the space they are moving though can compress sideways. But they can’t make curves at all.
VonCesaw@lemmy.world [bot] 1 year ago
PHOTONS HAVE MASS
ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE THEY HAVE MASS IS A COWARD
Zehzin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Photons can have little a mass, as a treat.
statist43@feddit.de 1 year ago
But every time i put it on a scale, it just flys away. GIVE ME PROOF. I have a kitchen scale to offer.
VonCesaw@lemmy.world [bot] 1 year ago
MEASURE FASTER
IT MOVES REAL QUICK
Squorlple@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Who is the dude on the right?
fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 year ago
A scientist at CERN.
Squorlple@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ah, I get the joke now. Classic
Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Because you’re so light
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Without mass how could you do anything else?
fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 year ago
Wave!
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I see you there
satans_crackpipe@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Without mass you have to occupy parts of time and possibly gravity.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 1 year ago
39 years old… Can confirm that time is perceptibly accelerating
ziggurism@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Photons cannot accelerate
Entropius@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Acceleration and Velocity are vectors. Changes in a velocity vector are an acceleration. Therefore when photons change direction technically it’s a form of acceleration.
metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub 1 year ago
I thought photons are always moving in straight lines from their perspective, and it’s space that’s bent. Unless it’s through a medium, then they just get absorbed and re-emitted, sort of.
ziggurism@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ok but photons don’t change direction either. Treating photon scattering as an individual particle accelerating due to an applied force, well that’s just not a correct description of how perturbative QED models photon interactions.
lustyargonian@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They do at 0m/s^2.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Not with that attitude.