What if...

What if...

Science

K
within reason

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What if two photons are traveling toward each other? Would they collide or, as I suspect may be the case, simply pass through each other and continue on their way.

chemist

Linkenheim

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@Kilroy70

Will they behave as wave or as particle?
is that your question?

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within reason

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@Ponderable said
@Kilroy70

Will they behave as wave or as particle?
is that your question?
I'm just saying I can't imagine what (if anything) might happen if two photons are traveling directly towards the same point.

When they reach that point do they briefly occupy the same space? And does the encounter (if you can call it that) have any affect on the photons?

chemist

Linkenheim

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@Kilroy70 said
I'm just saying I can't imagine what (if anything) might happen if two photons are traveling directly towards the same point.

When they reach that point do they briefly occupy the same space? And does the encounter (if you can call it that) have any affect on the photons?
So you assume Photons to be particles?

The mass of the photon is extremly low (there is a theoretical limit of 1×10−18 eV/c2. The size is also extremly small. Like atoms bounce of each other if they hit, I would expect the same for a photon.


ButI think that they will behave as waves and we have no problem.

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1 edit

@Ponderable said
So you assume Photons to be particles?

The mass of the photon is extremly low (there is a theoretical limit of 1×10−18 eV/c2. The size is also extremly small. Like atoms bounce of each other if they hit, I would expect the same for a photon.


ButI think that they will behave as waves and we have no problem.
Thanks, that pretty much answers my question. Since light behaves as both particle and wave I wasn't sure if the encounter could alter the path of a photon.

s
Fast and Curious

slatington, pa, usa

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@Kilroy70
One thing the experimentalists have done is to crash extremely high energy photons together and lo and behold those massless particles generate real particles with mass, of course that is literally extreme high energy photons.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/149087/scientists-discover-turn-light-into-matter/

Think about THAT one for awhile🙂

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