Hi Bill. Thank you for the answer. If that is the case, are there different energies that photons possess from the time they were released, that enables them to travel the vast distances across the universe?There are very few atoms in interstellar space, almost all of them are ionized hydrogen, thus only protons floating around. No photon can be absorbed by a free proton.
Taken in a practical sense the theory that photons travel as independent particles, is too full of unexplained theories that clash with well observed phenomena. Yet amazingly these anomalies are brushed over. Where would we be if this theory of how photons travel, were true? We are already isolated in the Universe, if the quantum mechanics theory of photons and photon travel were true it would mean that it would be impossible to receive radio or light signals from distant sources. There would be no wonderful interstellar transmissions from the Voyager space craft. If it is felt that it necessary to argue about this, get real, given the extreme weakness of the power available for the signal (about 25 W) the photons resulting from such a signal would diverge to such an extent that it would miss earth, if not the solar system by a wide margin. A far more plausible solution is that the signal is travelling through a medium (call it the aether if you like) and spreading out in accordance with the inverse square law. This means every point in the solar system would be covered by the signal.The ability of a photon to travel across the universe is independent of its energy, all photons travel in a vacuum at the speed of light. It is possible for two photons to join together to produce an electron and a positron but their energies must total more than 1.02 MeV and it must occur in the presence of a strong electric field such as a heavy atom such as uranium or lead in order to conserve momentum. It cannot occur in free space.
OK! Calm down.Not only would the signal not miss the Solar System, it would not miss a coffee cup.
This post is not meant to be contentious in any way, it merely illustrates a wish to try to understand the problem better. Just checked your figures and they seem to be approximately accurate. The volume of a football field is approx. 21333.7 cubic yards to the height of the goal posts. 21333.7 cubic yards translates to 1.63 x 10^10 cm ^3. There are approx. 2.7 x 10^19 air molecules in one cm^3 of air so a total of 2.7 x 10^19 x 1.63 x 10^10 = 4.4 x 10^29 molecules of air in the football field (approx..) If the dia of the speaker is 30 cm (1 ft) it will have an area of is 707 cm ^2 approx. This area will impact 707 x 2.7 x 10^19 = 1.9 x 10^22 air molecules. Now take a hypothetical shot gun shell containing 1.9 x 10^22 pellets (approx.) each pellet will be separated from every other pellet by 4.4 x 10^29 / 1.9 x 10^22 = 2.3 x 10^7 cm . (203 km!) Exclamation mark mine. For all I know these figures might be completely off but it does serve to demonstrate the difference between how a wave and a solid object travel.The air in a football stadium is comprised of something on the order of 10^30 molecules, each one which is shifted back and forth by a sound wave. Billions of them impact every eardrum, thus everyone hears the noise.
A shotgun shell might hold a couple of hundred pellets. By the time they reach the other side of the field they are each several feet apart, not every person will encounter one.
Now, surely, we enter the realm of humour.You cannot take the number of pellets in a stadium (4.4x10^29), divide that by the number of pellets touching a speaker cone (1.9x10^22) and get a distance (210km). You get a dimensionless number which is the number of pellets that got moved by each pellet moved by the speaker cone.
OK, just to put things in perspective the ray from a pocket laser would be about 13 Km across by the time it reached the moon! Although scientists have been trying to get a reflection back from mirrors placed on the moon, it is only now after 25 years of trying (2020) that they have managed to get a reflection back from a laser. This too is not from a reflector placed on the surface of the moon but from a reflector placed on the lunar orbiter. So¸ it is really a non sequitur to try to equate the manner in which a particle travels with the way in which a wave travels. There is a huge difference. Consider a grain sized particle For instance there about 10^19 molecules in a grain of sand, roughly the same number of molecules that a 30 cm dia speaker would interact with but you cannot expect that grain of sand to interact with all of the molecules in the air, it is not possible even though the number of molecules that the speaker interacts with and the molecules in the grain of sand are the same.Yes, photons are individual particles. As they travel outwards they get separated from each other. In the case of Voyager I, by the time the cloud of photons reaches the Earth, they are separated from each other by an average of about 2 inches. We are easily able to intercept enough of them to generate a signal in a radio receiver.
In any case you were quite right, I made the mistake of taking the number of molecules of separation as centimetres, the difference would be much less than a centimetre, maybe a thousandth of a centimetre. But, that doesn't mean I am wrong, read the previous post (#15).You cannot take the number of pellets in a stadium (4.4x10^29), divide that by the number of pellets touching a speaker cone (1.9x10^22) and get a distance (210km). You get a dimensionless number which is the number of pellets that got moved by each pellet moved by the speaker cone.
I am only quoting what I have read at multiple sources:The first laser ranging experiments of the Moon were done in 1962 by US scientists at MIT and again by Soviet scientists in the Crimea. In both cases they received photons bounced off the Moon's surface.