Interference of Light: Perpendicular Beams

AI Thread Summary
When two beams of light intersect perpendicularly, they pass through each other without interaction, as photons do not interact with themselves under normal conditions. While photons can interact under specific circumstances, such interactions are rare and weak. The coherence of the beams does not affect their behavior in this scenario, as the field components are oriented incorrectly. Thus, the conclusion remains that perpendicular light beams will not influence each other. This reinforces the understanding of light behavior in physics.
Gara
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what happens when two beams of light pass through each other perpendicular to each other??
 
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Nothing: light (photons) does not interact with itself. Thus the two lightbeams will simply go strait through each other.
 
yah that's what i thought but this guy i know said i was wrong. thanks.
 
It depends if the beams were coherent or not. But two beams passing perpendicularly wouldn't be affected either way as the field components would be in the wrong directions
 

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