Recent content by coolforumguy

Yeah I understand the big picture explanation, I want to know why the big picture explanation works. I didn't mean to imply that I was correct and everyone else was incorrect, I was just trying to convey my point of view so someone can tell me exactly which part I am misunderstanding. My...

Yeah but photons don't bounce off anything. They cause force on electric charges.

But fundamentally any EM radiation is caused by accelerating electric charge. Maybe 'oscillate' is the wrong word. I don't understand this. Light is only reflected off an object if the electrons in that object are caused to accelerate. Wouldn't this acceleration of electrons heat up the object...

I understand that white objects 'reflect' all frequencies of visible light, and black objects 'absorb' all frequencies of visible light. But I thought that 'reflecting' light means that the electrons in the atoms are caused to oscillate, and 'absorbing' means the electrons in the atoms are not...