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jeremyfiennes
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- TL;DR Summary
- How does a beam of unpolarized light carry energy?
Light consists of transversely varying electric and magnetic fields. A point charge in the path of a vertically polarized light beam experiences a vertically varying force from which energy can be extracted. In an unpolarized beam, the electric fields of individual photons act randomly in all directions. Resulting in no net force on a point charge. So how does an unpolarized light beam carry energy?