The Mystery of Light in a Box: Where Does It Go?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter lunarcolonies
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Box Light Mystery
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the behavior of light in a hypothetical reflective box, particularly focusing on what happens to a laser beam once it is turned off. Participants explore concepts related to energy dissipation, the nature of heat, and broader implications for the universe.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions whether the laser beam would continue to bounce off the walls of the box or dissipate, expressing uncertainty about where the energy goes if it dissipates.
  • Another participant suggests that the energy from the light would convert to heat.
  • A different viewpoint proposes that if heat results from the expenditure of light, then cold could be theorized as a result of heat expenditure, leading to questions about a potential life cycle of cold and its implications for the universe.
  • One participant emphasizes that heat is related to atomic motion and suggests that the concept of cold lacks mathematical utility.
  • Another participant expresses a belief that the universe is limited by its matter and energy resources, leading to a notion of an eventual end state.
  • A participant expresses skepticism about the concept of time but acknowledges its relevance to the discussion.
  • One participant reiterates the initial question about the laser beam and adds that the walls of the box are not perfectly reflective, indicating that some light would be absorbed and converted to heat.
  • Another participant challenges the idea that the universe's end follows logically from the previous claims about energy and matter.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the nature of light, energy dissipation, and the implications for the universe, with no clear consensus reached on these topics.

Contextual Notes

Some assumptions about the reflective properties of the box and the nature of energy conversion remain unaddressed, and the discussion includes speculative ideas about the universe's fate.

lunarcolonies
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
If you could build a box with a reflective inside that no light could escape. If somehow you put a laser in the box and fired the beam and then shut off the laser what would happen? Would the beam continued to bounce off of the insides of the box or would the beam dissipate somehow? If it does dissipate, where does the light go without an escape point?

I personally think that it would dissipate, I don't however have a clue where the energy goes. It becomes a different form of energy obviously, but what... got me.
 
Science news on Phys.org
Heat.
 
Makes sense. So heat then would be the end of the life cycle for light. If heat is the result of the expenditure of light, wouldn't it make sense then that Cold, or the absence of heat would be the result of the expenditure of heat? If so we could theorize that the cold throughout the universe is the result of this process?

An interesting question this brings up is, does Cold in itself have an undiscovered life cycle that possibly initiates the heat life cycle (cosmic perpetual motion?)?

Another would be on the other side of the spectrum, could this mean that once all the fuel is used, no more universe?
 
Heat is (usually atomic) motion.
The concept of cold as a corollary is of no mathematical use.

Look up entropy - that's of more use to you as a concept here.
 
Then the universe as we know it is limited to amount of fuel it has to use (matter). We began as noting and based on this we will end as nothing? Interesting idea.
 
I don't totally buy that because I don't really believe in time but I'm willing to agree that it's a part of the puzzle.
 
lunarcolonies said:
If you could build a box with a reflective inside that no light could escape. If somehow you put a laser in the box and fired the beam and then shut off the laser what would happen?


Would the beam continued to bounce off of the insides of the box or would the beam dissipate somehow? If it does dissipate, where does the light go without an escape point?

I personally think that it would dissipate, I don't however have a clue where the energy goes. It becomes a different form of energy obviously, but what... got me.

1] The walls are not 100% reflective; some of the light will go into the walls and rfadiate as heat.
2] There is a laser in the box that has parts that are not reflective. They will very quickly absorb stray light and heat up.
 
lunarcolonies said:
Then the universe as we know it is limited to amount of fuel it has to use (matter). We began as noting and based on this we will end as nothing? Interesting idea.

This does not follow.
 

Similar threads

High School Can Lasers Really Create a Functional Light Saber?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
1K
High School Could you use the Moon to reflect sunlight onto a solar sail?
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
4K
Undergrad Geiger Counter and ultraviolet light sources
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
5K
Misc. Isolation box to measure light source inside (closer to visible light)
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
3K
Graduate Can light always be treated as a physical object?
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
6K
High School I don't understand exactly how the propagation of light works
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
4K
Graduate Interference puzzle - Where does the energy go?
  • · Replies 53 ·
2
Replies
53
Views
9K
Undergrad Light Reflection: Understand How Light Interacts with Materials
  • · Replies 26 ·
Replies
26
Views
6K
High School The Mysterious, Impossible Box: Questions & Answers
  • · Replies 71 ·
3
Replies
71
Views
13K
Graduate Electrically Controlled Auto Darkening Lenses: Mirrored or Transparent?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K