Does light travel in a straight line trough air?

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the behavior of light as it travels through air, specifically whether it travels in straight lines and how this affects our perception of objects. Participants explore concepts related to light scattering, distortion, and visual phenomena observed in different conditions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions whether light is deflected by atoms in the air, suggesting that this could distort our perception of shapes and trajectories.
  • Another participant notes that light does not travel in perfectly straight lines through air, citing examples like shimmering images in hot air and the twinkling of stars as evidence of distortions.
  • A claim is made that the blue color of the sky indicates that light does not follow a straight path through the atmosphere.
  • Some participants agree that while light is not perfectly straight in air, it is "pretty" straight, allowing for functional human vision.
  • There is a discussion about visual artifacts, such as lines appearing around light sources in dark conditions, with one participant attributing this to lens effects rather than atmospheric interference.
  • A participant seeks clarification on whether the observed effects in dark conditions are caused by air or if they also occur in space.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the extent to which light is affected by air, with some suggesting significant distortion and others arguing that it remains largely straight. The discussion does not reach a consensus on these points.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various visual phenomena and effects, but the discussion lacks detailed exploration of the underlying physics or assumptions about light behavior in different media.

Jarfi
Messages
384
Reaction score
12
When you shoot a single photon, wouldn't the oxygen, and other atoms in the air we breathe move the light off it's trajectory. Won't the light hit any atoms or bend away from the atoms. Does light bend in air? Does it bend to avoid striking the atoms?

How do we see straight lines, how do we see the shapes, shouldn't the shapes we see with our eyes be disorted because our eyes receive wrong information about where the photons came from, because the photons were bent/scattered of their course to our direction?

I don't understand how light travels in air or how we see ''correctly''
 
Science news on Phys.org
Light doesn't travel through air in exactly straight lines. You can see the effect on images which "shimmer" when seen though rising hot air (as in a mirage). The twinkling of stars is also caused by distortions which change due to motion in the air.

However, light does travel "pretty" straight through air, so that human vision still works, more or less.
 
The fact that the sky is blue, not pitch black, shows that some of the light passing through the atmosphere does not follow a straight path.
 
olivermsun said:
Light doesn't travel through air in exactly straight lines. You can see the effect on images which "shimmer" when seen though rising hot air (as in a mirage). The twinkling of stars is also caused by distortions which change due to motion in the air.

However, light does travel "pretty" straight through air, so that human vision still works, more or less.

Yes but when we see light in the dark, for example a light pole or a star It seems like there are lines that form around the source of light, like a cross or you know a star? is that caused by air? does that not happen in space?
 
Jarfi said:
Yes but when we see light in the dark, for example a light pole or a star It seems like there are lines that form around the source of light, like a cross or you know a star? is that caused by air? does that not happen in space?
That's most likely caused by a lens -- in a camera taking a photo, in spectacles (if you wear them) or even the lens of your eye.
 

Similar threads

Graduate Measuring the speed of light in a straight line
  • · Replies 19 ·
Replies
19
Views
2K
High School Why are light waves depicted as lines, circles, and sinusoids?
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
4K
High School Is Infrared Light Invisible to Humans Due to Eye Limitations?
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
High School Scattering of light inside a room
  • · Replies 22 ·
Replies
22
Views
3K
Undergrad Why do eyes only see in straight lines? (Light Physics)
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
5K
High School Speed of light versus wavelength
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
2K
High School What Keeps Photons Traveling Across the Galaxy?
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
High School Why does light diffraction create circular patterns?
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K
High School Why does light travel in straight lines in a vacuum?
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Undergrad Does Snell's Law accurately explain light refraction in water?
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
2K