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Hi,
I have two questions about Huygen's principle.
First, isn't Huygen's principle not a violation of the conservation of energy? Imagine you start off with one source of light (a point). The principle says that each point of the wave front will become itself a source of light waves. So you start with one point source and after some time you get an infinite amount of point sources. Where is the flaw in my argumentation?
Secondly, imagine having a flashlight that sends out light. The light it sends out is a beam with almost parallel light waves. But Huygen's principle says that at the moment the beam leaves the flashlight, it spreads in all directions. Where is the flaw here?
Thank you.
I have two questions about Huygen's principle.
First, isn't Huygen's principle not a violation of the conservation of energy? Imagine you start off with one source of light (a point). The principle says that each point of the wave front will become itself a source of light waves. So you start with one point source and after some time you get an infinite amount of point sources. Where is the flaw in my argumentation?
Secondly, imagine having a flashlight that sends out light. The light it sends out is a beam with almost parallel light waves. But Huygen's principle says that at the moment the beam leaves the flashlight, it spreads in all directions. Where is the flaw here?
Thank you.