The Wave-Particle Duality of light and the laws of reflection

aditya ver.2.0
Messages
67
Reaction score
4
I wonder how the wave particle duality property of light persists with the laws of reflection? How exactly is a photon directed in the same angle (i.e. the angle of incidence) by a particle as reflection while abiding through the quantum theory and the Raman Effect?
Such as we throw an elastic ball on a cement surface at an angle of x1 , then the ball bounces back following the law of reflection owing to the normal force received by the surface. But how come a photon, i.e. absorbed and re-emitted by a particle, follow such laws?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
You want to get hold of the book "QED: The strange theory of light and matter" by Richard Feynmann. It's written for a layman, and provides a good and clear explanation of how reflection works with photons.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!

Similar threads

Replies
36
Views
7K
Replies
9
Views
2K
Replies
17
Views
3K
Replies
10
Views
3K
Replies
34
Views
4K
Replies
3
Views
1K
Back
Top