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  • Feynman : Light Is Made of Particles, Not Waves

    From Pentcho Valev@21:1/5 to All on Thu Dec 29 11:31:30 2022
    Richard Feynman: "I want to emphasize that light comes in this form - particles. It is very important to know that light behaves like particles, especially for those of you who have gone to school, where you probably learned something about light
    behaving like waves. I'm telling you the way it does behave - like particles. You might say that it's just the photomultiplier that detects light as particles, but no, every instrument that has been designed to be sensitive enough to detect weak light
    has always ended up discovering the same thing: light is made of particles." QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter p. 15 https://www.amazon.com/QED-Strange-Theory-Light-Matter/dp/0691024170

    Whether Feynman is correct or not is not a matter of discussion here. I am just drawing the attention to a crucial implication:

    The wave-based concept of VARIABLE wavelength of light (illustration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsVxC_NR64M) is unrealistic.

    That is, Feynman's words imply that the wavelength of light is always invariable, constant. Feynman's fans should either repudiate their guru or accept the implication.

    If it is not too late and physics can still be resurrected, "The wavelength of light is constant" will become the fundamental axiom of future, Einstein-free physics.

    See more here: https://twitter.com/pentcho_valev

    Pentcho Valev

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  • From Pentcho Valev@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 30 04:46:19 2022
    It is trivial to say that some properties of light are particle-like and others are wave-like. Here is a crucial question:

    Variable speed of light and constant wavelength, in accordance with the particle model of light, or constant speed of light and variable wavelength, in accordance with the wave model of light?

    The answer was given in 1887, prior to the introduction of the length-contraction fudge factor:

    "Emission theory, also called emitter theory or ballistic theory of light, was a competing theory for the special theory of relativity, explaining the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887...The name most often associated with emission
    theory is Isaac Newton. In his corpuscular theory Newton visualized light "corpuscles" being thrown off from hot bodies at a nominal speed of c with respect to the emitting object, and obeying the usual laws of Newtonian mechanics, and we then expect
    light to be moving towards us with a speed that is offset by the speed of the distant emitter (c ± v)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_theory

    Banesh Hoffmann, Einstein's co-author, admits that, originally ("without recourse to contracting lengths, local time, or Lorentz transformations"), the Michelson-Morley experiment was compatible with Newton's variable speed of light, c'=c±v, and
    incompatible with the constant speed of light, c'=c:

    "Moreover, if light consists of particles, as Einstein had suggested in his paper submitted just thirteen weeks before this one, the second principle seems absurd: A stone thrown from a speeding train can do far more damage than one thrown from a train
    at rest; the speed of the particle is not independent of the motion of the object emitting it. And if we take light to consist of particles and assume that these particles obey Newton's laws, they will conform to Newtonian relativity and thus
    automatically account for the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment without recourse to contracting lengths, local time, or Lorentz transformations. Yet, as we have seen, Einstein resisted the temptation to account for the null result in terms
    of particles of light and simple, familiar Newtonian ideas, and introduced as his second postulate something that was more or less obvious when thought of in terms of waves in an ether." Banesh Hoffmann, Relativity and Its Roots, p.92 https://www.amazon.
    com/Relativity-Its-Roots-Banesh-Hoffmann/dp/0486406768

    More here: https://twitter.com/pentcho_valev

    Pentcho Valev

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