How does light slow down?

[Admin]

Ever wondered how light slows down when passing through a material? Here we explore why the answer is not that straightforward.

How does light slow down? : Read more

 

[Atlan0001]

Then you have the classical, SPACETIME, otherwise also known as LIGHT-TIME or simply "histories"! In closed system, the ceiling horizon fastest speed there is! In open system, the floor horizon slowest speed there is! An objective real in space and time will always be out front in space and time of the SPACETIME (LIGHT-TIME) subjective relative.

Going away from anywhere in SPACE and TIME, the objective real, and therefore its clock, will be farther out front, to ever far farther out front, in space and time from anywhere than its SPACETIME (LIGHT-TIME) subjective relative hologram.

Oncoming to anywhere in SPACE and TIME, the objective real, and therefore its clock, will still be farther out front, to far farther out front, in space and time, than its SPACETIME (LIGHT-TIME) subjective relative hologram gradually speeding up in SPACETIME (in LIGHT-TIME) in closing upon the objectively real, itself closing upon points of objective reality anywhere at all. The triangle of three points (including the subjectively relative hologram and its subjectively relative clock and clock time) will close at the 0-point closure of the two objective reals . . . including the two objectively real clocks and their objectively real clocked times.

A SPACETIME (LIGHT-TIME) holographic constant of speed that [apparently] slows down in objective expansions going away from object points anywhere and everywhere . . . and equally but oppositely [apparently] speeds up in objective contractions oncoming to object points anywhere and everywhere. But always until the very last instant of time, and then only in oncoming to the closing of objectively real points, so slow (in any open or opening system whatsoever) as to be unable to catch up to any objective real in SPACE and TIME until the meeting point of objective reals.

An amazing thing to be universally the fastest [measured] speed there is in a closed or closing system yet universally be the slowest [measured] speed in any open or opening system . . . to be nothing -- both slowing down going away and speeding up oncoming -- but future-past // past-future "'histories' on the clock!"

 

[24launch]

What I'm curious about then is why does light bend or refract when passing through these materials? These 3 explanations for why it slows down don't address that phenomenon. I do have QED, by Richard Feynman and while I've made several attempts to read it, just didn't get terribly far. I'm betting he addresses it.

 

[Atlan0001]

What I'm curious about then is why does light bend or refract when passing through these materials? These 3 explanations for why it slows down don't address that phenomenon. I do have QED, by Richard Feynman and while I've made several attempts to read it, just didn't get terribly far. I'm betting he addresses it.

A maze, a hall of mirrors. Measure the speed of light going in to be 300,000kps. Measure it to be coming out 300,000kps. And speed through any discrete distance inside the hall of mirrors to be the same. But take the total measured time through the measured space of the maze of the hall of mirrors and the result will be a light speed slower than the constant of the speed of light.

In baseball, a fastball thrown at 100+ miles per hour appears to the batter to rise upwards on its way to the plate. One thrown at 90 miles per hour appears to come straight in to plate, while one thrown at 80 miles per hours appears to the batter to be dropping as it is coming into the plate. The speed of light mixing with the bend of gravity giving three different views to the batter of pitch bend in travel to the plate. The pitch is known to travel faster out of the hand of the pitcher but appears to the batter to arrive faster at the plate than when leaving the hand of the pitcher. The speed of light spent the distance to the plate trying to catch up to the speed of the ball, not catching up to the ball -- and merging with it -- until the very last instant of the ball's arrival at the plate.

We talk about the measurement of the speed of light, when the speed of light follows the position and velocity of whatever the object and/or object event, never, ever, surpassing it in space and time. Only a past "history" surpassing. A rearview mirror on an auto might have the words "the following vehicle in this mirror is closer to you than it looks in this mirror" (it, the following vehicle -- you might call it a "future" now -- is outrunning the speed of light's transmission of that vehicle's positions and velocities, speeding only its "past" history). Relative to light at the speed of light (always measuring a "past" history), the distant objective reality itself (no matter how close or far in position it is and no matter its velocity), is always a "future" now (a "future" placement), again "at any distance", in space and time.

Relativity, the base Theory of Relativity, does not divide into subjective pasts and objective futures. Whereas hyperspace theories make space pliable (shape shifting space), Relativity tries to make space hard (hard! space) and time differentially pliable (thus dealing in time distortions). The first has space subjectively pliable and time objectively rigid. The second, Relativity, has space objectively rigid and time subjectively pliable. The first deals in many fractal-zoom universes (or "many worlds," plural). The second deals in a naked singularity of universe 'Relativity'.

 

[sNarayana]

Light slows down when it enters a medium, like glass. This is what is explained in this article. When the light leaves the glass medium and enters air (or, vacuum) it regains its original speed. Please explain that.

 

[billslugg]

The speed of light never changes. In the refractive medium, the light stops for a moment at each atom and pays a short visit. In between atoms it is at the usual speed.

 

[Classical Motion]

I think it spins. And the spin motion is taken from the c motion. And added back to it when the light leaves and stops spinning. It doesn't really slow down, but has a longer path, because of the twist. Mass spins it.

Different F, angle input...... rates and separates the spins. A prism.

A normal angle can rate equal spins for many F. A pane.

 

[bolide]

What I'm curious about then is why does light bend or refract when passing through these materials? These 3 explanations for why it slows down don't address that phenomenon. I do have QED, by Richard Feynman and while I've made several attempts to read it, just didn't get terribly far. I'm betting he addresses it.

If you could see a single-photon wide (one-dimensional) beam of light, you wouldn't see it refract. But we always observe a beam of light that has some width, or diameter, perpendicular to the direction of travel. When such a beam hits a material surface at an angle, one side of the beam hits first, and the contact point moves across until the opposite side of the beam hits last. The part of the beam that hits first is being slowed down while the other side is at full speed until it hits the surface. This bends the beam, so that it's traveling inside the material at a different angle to the surface than it was before contact. This is hard to describe in words, but easy to see in a graphic. Do a search on "refraction," then look at Images and look for one labeled "NSTA."

 

[billslugg]

Single photons reflect, refract and interfere just a collections of photons do. Single photons fired one at a time at a lens will act just the same. In fact, even solid particles will show a diffraction pattern through a slit when fired one at a time.

 

[bolide]

Single photons reflect, refract and interfere just a collections of photons do. Single photons fired one at a time at a lens will act just the same. In fact, even solid particles will show a diffraction pattern through a slit when fired one at a time.

So a single photon will change direction upon entering a material that slows it down? Why would it do that? My answer explains the change in direction of a wavefront, but wouldn't apply to a single photon.

 

[billslugg]

Yes, a single photon will follow the same path multiple photons do. It has both wave and particle characteristics. It is the wave function dominates in the transit of a medium. This "same path" applies to reflection, refraction and diffraction. It applies to waves and particles.

 

[Atlan0001]

From post #4:

".... The speed of light spent the distance to the plate trying to catch up to the speed of the ball, not catching up to the ball -- and merging with it -- until the very last instant of the ball's arrival at the plate." Why so apparently slow when 'c' is supposed to be the ultimate? rhetorically speaking!

Because light is not a solid continuum either classically (as time frame holograms) or quantumly (as photon waves or particle cloud swarms) but re-initializes instant to instant. It is a matter of chronicling histories over distances going away and oncoming, thus always falling behind object reality while in travel but because of the constant of re-initialization on the spot of objective reality always catching up to reality in the end, naturally, oncoming (at the closure of any distance).