Light as a Wave: Exploring Time & Magnetic Fields

[QuantumHop]

As I understand it anything moving at speed c doesn't experience time so from the perspective of the photon its emitted from one atom and then instantly absorbed by another.

If this is so then how does a magnetic field generate an electric field when it has no time to do so? Something that's not experiencing time shouldn't be able to oscillate.

Nature is so confusing.

 

[ZikZak]

You can't talk about the reference frame of a photon; it doesn't have one. The oscillation you're talking about happens in the observer's reference frame.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Because we are not photons - we experience time, we experience EM fields. Photons do not experience EM fields. Like you say, "experience" is not a good concept for photons because there is no time for them to experience anything. We give up and talk about world-lines in 4D.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Just remember, Einstein defined time as what a clock measures. Since no clock can travel at c, it's meaningless to consider time for a photon. It doesn't make sense to say that since a photon doesn't experience time, its experience of time is instantly.