Matter
I was doing some thinking this morning about space, and atoms, and generally quantum things I suppose. This is branching from the physics course I'm taking for fun. :)
So when particles get smaller and smaller and smaller, eventually they stop acting like particles and end up with more of a particle wave-like duality. So light, which is considered to be made up of very small particles (photons) also has wave-like properties, as we know through such displays as the slit experiments. Recent experiments to determine the medium through which light travels (seeing as all waves should have to travel through a medium, like sound waves do) have failed; it seems that there is no distinct medium through which the light waves travel. Which suggests that these are simply millions of tiny particles racing through space in a wave-like formation.
If the photons of light racing in every which direction through space are actually millions of tiny particles...then is there really such a thing as a complete vacuum in space, where there is no matter? Could we argue that photons are matter? Yet doesn't matter have to have mass, and don't photons lack mass? As I was trying to think about this, I got to thinking about sound, and how it can't travel through a vacuum, b/c it needs to travel through a medium, to pass the vibration/wave along. I wondered if photons could be used as a meduim, but then discounted this as silly, seeing as sound couldn't simply pass through a vacuum by shining a light into the vacuum space. Which led me to another thought.
Visualise a vacuum on a table top, in a bell jar. With a radio inside. Before the vacuum is created, we can hear the radio, b/c the sound waves are traveling through the air. When the vacuum is established, although the radio will still be playing, we can't hear it, because the sound waves have no way of reaching our ears through the air; there is no air inside the bell jar for the waves to travel through. However, if you shone a flashlight on one side of the bell jar, you'd be able to see it on the other side, as light needs no medium to travel through. But here's the question I thought of. Why can light/photons, which are small particles, travel through the glass? It's clear, and you can see through it...but what makes it possible for the photons to travel through it? Wouldn't one material block the other? The answer's probably really simple, but I don't know it right now...if anyone has any suggestions, post a comment!!
~Pondering matter
So when particles get smaller and smaller and smaller, eventually they stop acting like particles and end up with more of a particle wave-like duality. So light, which is considered to be made up of very small particles (photons) also has wave-like properties, as we know through such displays as the slit experiments. Recent experiments to determine the medium through which light travels (seeing as all waves should have to travel through a medium, like sound waves do) have failed; it seems that there is no distinct medium through which the light waves travel. Which suggests that these are simply millions of tiny particles racing through space in a wave-like formation.
If the photons of light racing in every which direction through space are actually millions of tiny particles...then is there really such a thing as a complete vacuum in space, where there is no matter? Could we argue that photons are matter? Yet doesn't matter have to have mass, and don't photons lack mass? As I was trying to think about this, I got to thinking about sound, and how it can't travel through a vacuum, b/c it needs to travel through a medium, to pass the vibration/wave along. I wondered if photons could be used as a meduim, but then discounted this as silly, seeing as sound couldn't simply pass through a vacuum by shining a light into the vacuum space. Which led me to another thought.
Visualise a vacuum on a table top, in a bell jar. With a radio inside. Before the vacuum is created, we can hear the radio, b/c the sound waves are traveling through the air. When the vacuum is established, although the radio will still be playing, we can't hear it, because the sound waves have no way of reaching our ears through the air; there is no air inside the bell jar for the waves to travel through. However, if you shone a flashlight on one side of the bell jar, you'd be able to see it on the other side, as light needs no medium to travel through. But here's the question I thought of. Why can light/photons, which are small particles, travel through the glass? It's clear, and you can see through it...but what makes it possible for the photons to travel through it? Wouldn't one material block the other? The answer's probably really simple, but I don't know it right now...if anyone has any suggestions, post a comment!!
~Pondering matter