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Posted by Simon Hendry on June 18, 1998 at 20:39:18:
In Reply to: Re: Is the observation of light the problem posted by Kirk on June 07, 1998 at 04:08:02:
: : For all practical purposes light is observed on a two-dimensional plane.
: : What if light travels through what could be considered a three-dimensional "either" as far as observations are concerned.
: : Imagine a spiraling ribbon thrown at you from a friend at some arbitrary distance. This ribbon as it approaches you has a constant velocity and always rotates at a constant radius perpendicular to you. However, you can only observe it at 90 degrees to horizontal.
: : A neutral observer standing perpendicular to you observes this ribbon as a wave with frequency and amplitude. Depending on the frequency and accuracy of your observation you will see the ribbon as a solid object approaching you or as intermittent pulses of light (from matter) approaching you.
: : Could this be why light sometimes has the characteristics of a wave and sometimes as a particle?
: : I am not a scientist and do not have the necessary physics backround to persue this umption with a mathematical model. Therefore, if someone could let me know if this theory "is full of holes", I would appreciate the input.
: : On a lighter note, I am a believer that there is at least four or five ways to spell all words so please do not judge me on my spelling.
: : Thank you for your patience in helping me persue my hobby. I am looking forward to your replies.
:
: Like you, I am an who is simply facinated by this type of stuff, so if this reply is unclear, or flat-out wrong, I appologise...
: I'm not exactly sure what the original question is, but if it's simply to say that light acting as a wave is due only to observation issues and is not an inherent property of light, I believe this is false. One clic experiment shoots a beam of protons (all matter is thought to have wave properties) through a small hole onto a phosporus screen, and the result is a wave-like 'bullseye' pattern. If I understand your argument correcly, the result of what you have described would be a spiraling pattern, or even no specific pattern at all. I have read a book on quantum physics which tries to explain issues like this to the novice. It is pretty good at explaining in layman terms, although some of the ogies are not that useful. It is titled QUANTUM REALITY, BEYOND THE NEW PHYSICS by Nick Herbert.
: As a note, Scientific American had an article on some of the modern physicist's attempts to reconcile reletivity with quantum physics (which is based on the wave properties of matter), as part of the Unified Theory I belive. They were using multi-dimensional equations, at the 9 to 11 level. So you may be right in observing that wave-like properties are a result of our observational limitations, but it is probably of a little higher level, one that is almost impossible to visualize.
I again am not a true physics expert but I do have some more comments on the spiral effect of the particle ... It is possible for the wave effect of light to still appear if in fact we reference the particles plane of spinning... As with the ribbon.. The ribbon only seems to go up and down if you look at it as it comes towards you but if you look at it with a third dimension ( ie. observing fomr the side )you notice that it also has depth... if a photon or in fact any other particle did spiral , but had its depth in another dimension , then in our world ("real space") you would see a wave characteristic of a particle even though it was in fact a spiral not a wave ... This I guess has some interesting consequences.. Like is the particle depth dimension time ??
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