- #36
kcodon
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Is this the 2D scenario you were referring to? I actually just reread the whole thread and came across it and looked at it under new light. However I don't come close to fully understanding what you are saying...note that I have pretty much no knowledge of relativity or the mathematics I believe you are speaking of. If there is an easier way to put it, I'd appreciate it, otherwise don't worry about it.Consider, if you will, an electron orbiting an atom. That electron exists on a shell of constant energy about the atom. If this electron were to move to a lower energy shell, a photon is released to conserve energy. This photon propogates outward equally in all directions at the speed of light - compressing the spatial dimension representing the shell's diameter to zero (radially) by Lorentz contraction. At any given point in space, that pseudo electron shell (representing the change in energy) can then be pojected on a sphere of constant time with respect to the emitting atom. The phase of this pseudo-electron orbit does not vary with time at our given point, but it will vary with radial distance from the emitter. The entire orbit of this pseudo-electron can then be construed to exist at a point (or "patch") on a spere - only by varying radius can you "observe" the sinusoidal amplitude of the wave as its' complex amplitude varies through 360 degrees (one wavelength).
I am talking about one singular photon being emitted. So there may not be another photon emitted in the opposite direction. Imagine then a H atom with an electron in the first excited state; it can only emit one photon - to conserve energy - and thus the H atom must now move to conserve momentum.there may well be another (the same?) traveling in the opposite direction (and 180deg out of phase)
I am not sure if when a photon is emitted the atom loses mass...? The photon has no mass, but has momentum. The electron loses energy, so a photon is given off...i.e. energy.An atom that emits a photon does still lose mass in the process; so how else could that instantaneous change in mass convert itself to a photon (wave, or otherwise)?
Firstly we are talking about a singular photon, so its energy can only be in one place. There is a probability of it being anywhere on the surface, but it's energy is only at one point. This is I think where we disagree the most, and maybe we need some others' opinions?Well - the way I see it is that the total energy of the wave exists in different directions at different times due to the nature of the source (an orbiting electron). The suggestion that one could capture all of the wave energy at a single point in space strikes me as absurd.
Kcodon