- #1
frustrationboltzmann
- 5
- 2
Hello all,
after thinking about properties of electromagnetic waves, especially concerning the electric field of them, I ran into some serious understanding problems:
1) photons are electromagnetic waves and vice versa and they convey electrical force. Let's now do a thought experiment: let's assume 2 free charges in vacuum, which attract each other. let's say an electron and a proton a little distance from each other. when they attract each other the electric field vector has to lie on the "line" connecting them, in order to accelerate the 2 particles to each other. the conveying photons are now sent on the same line between the particles...but wait, now the k-vector and the E-vector of the electric field would be not normal to each other, like maxwell´s equations would assume but parallel. how can this work without contradiction or did I understand some aspect wrongly?
after thinking about properties of electromagnetic waves, especially concerning the electric field of them, I ran into some serious understanding problems:
1) photons are electromagnetic waves and vice versa and they convey electrical force. Let's now do a thought experiment: let's assume 2 free charges in vacuum, which attract each other. let's say an electron and a proton a little distance from each other. when they attract each other the electric field vector has to lie on the "line" connecting them, in order to accelerate the 2 particles to each other. the conveying photons are now sent on the same line between the particles...but wait, now the k-vector and the E-vector of the electric field would be not normal to each other, like maxwell´s equations would assume but parallel. how can this work without contradiction or did I understand some aspect wrongly?
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