Lightspeed fast, then slowed, then fast again.

  • Thread starter Thread starter mapper
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Lightspeed
AI Thread Summary
Light slows down when passing through materials like water and glass due to absorption and re-emission by the matter, but it always travels at the speed of light "c" in a vacuum. The apparent slowdown is not a loss of energy; rather, energy is conserved as light interacts with matter. When light exits a medium, it resumes its speed without needing an additional energy source. This phenomenon aligns with Newton's law of conservation of energy. The discussion clarifies that light's speed remains constant, regardless of the medium it traverses.
mapper
Messages
123
Reaction score
0
I was reading material on light speed and have a question about something I thought may contradict Newtons law of conservation of energy.

Light slows down as it passes through water, glass etc.. right? But when it reaches the other side it continues at light speed. Where is it getting its energy/power supply to continue back at its normal speed? Whats happening here? :eek:
 
Science news on Phys.org
It ALWAYS MOVES AT "c"...It's just that matter absorbs it & reemits it and that's why the apparent "slowdown" due to presence of matter...

Daniel.

P.S.Energy is conserved.
 
ahh, thanks.
 
it never stops moving at "c" :D just the matter makes it slow down, but the nergy is used the same :D
 
Thread 'A quartet of epi-illumination methods'
Well, it took almost 20 years (!!!), but I finally obtained a set of epi-phase microscope objectives (Zeiss). The principles of epi-phase contrast is nearly identical to transillumination phase contrast, but the phase ring is a 1/8 wave retarder rather than a 1/4 wave retarder (because with epi-illumination, the light passes through the ring twice). This method was popular only for a very short period of time before epi-DIC (differential interference contrast) became widely available. So...
I am currently undertaking a research internship where I am modelling the heating of silicon wafers with a 515 nm femtosecond laser. In order to increase the absorption of the laser into the oxide layer on top of the wafer it was suggested we use gold nanoparticles. I was tasked with modelling the optical properties of a 5nm gold nanoparticle, in particular the absorption cross section, using COMSOL Multiphysics. My model seems to be getting correct values for the absorption coefficient and...
Back
Top