Does a photon actually accelerate? Sure seems like it always goes at light speed through whatever medium from its creation.
Speediest little fella.
Submitted 11 months 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 11 months ago
Vilian@lemmy.ca 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months ago
This is acceleration with no mass and no resistance to medium.
Neato@kbin.social 11 months ago
Photons are born and die at c. They experience no time and have no frame of reference.
trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
They change direction and speed, right?
ziggurism@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The fact that light cannot change speed is one of the core axioms of relativity
marcos@lemmy.world 11 months 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] 11 months ago
PHOTONS HAVE MASS
ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE THEY HAVE MASS IS A COWARD
Zehzin@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Photons can have little a mass, as a treat.
statist43@feddit.de 11 months 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] 11 months ago
MEASURE FASTER
IT MOVES REAL QUICK
Squorlple@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Who is the dude on the right?
fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 months ago
A scientist at CERN.
Squorlple@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ah, I get the joke now. Classic
Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Because you’re so light
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Without mass how could you do anything else?
fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 months ago
Wave!
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I see you there
satans_crackpipe@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Without mass you have to occupy parts of time and possibly gravity.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 11 months ago
39 years old… Can confirm that time is perceptibly accelerating
ziggurism@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Photons cannot accelerate
Entropius@lemmy.world 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months ago
They do at 0m/s^2.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Not with that attitude.