Light in a Medium

10/4/21

modified 10/11/21 (modified to reflect light doing only 3 things from 4/Added quartz/retardation)

modified 10/12/21 (Modified Photon information in relation to current theory)

1/10/22 Corrected internal reflected action.

1/11/22 Addition of Medium transfer action

8/3/2022 Addition of eplanation for propagation through "random" molecules

(See "Photon Illustrated" (not available 10/12) for depiction)

This hypothesis is based on the scientific observation of light and applied to "Creation of a Universe" found at Perpetualism.net

Light has no mass.

Based on scientific observations, light basically does three things.

1. Gets absorbed

2. Reflects

3. Follows a path in space or medium (light has no mass, therefore size doesn't matter) it BENDS (follows the warped spacial path) around the MASS of ATOMS and travels a further distance through medium.

We have observed this in Astrophysics around massive objects.

This occurs right in front of our eyes and is measured as refractive index.

All the data from the experiments is very likely correct, people just don't think of atoms as massive objects that light would warp space around them, but light is MASS FREE, so size matters not! The mere presence of any mass is enough at the Quantum level.

Ben Marshall posited this: "It's got me thinking about a single photon hitting a medium and how it would behave." Which made me think about it myself. My personal answer:

Everything. A photon is the smallest form of light we can detect. Einstein and others have stated it is the smallest form of itself. But after the single photon double slit experiment, I have my doubts. It seems like single photons are taking all possible paths. And so, as it travels through a medium, a single photon gets partially absorbed into, reflected of off, and warped around the mass of the atoms present in the medium. It reflects off the surface at an angle equal to the one it enters, but as it travels through the medium, the reflections are partially scattered due to spacial warping at the Quantum level or reflect back out and attempt to rejoin the initially reflected light. When light transfers to a new medium it is reflected back out the top parallel and angularly equal to represent the transitional diference. Absorption occurs throughout the medium until all energy is absorbed or scattered/reflected and absorbed likely producing heat, but dependent on the medium. What bends around the mass and makes it through will continue on forever in a vacuum until it encounters another medium.

After coming up with the general answer of "Everything," I Googled production of a single photon and came across Peter Mosley from the University of Bath at Physicsworld.com. I have no idea what optical properties his crystal has, but it could be the same single photon dividing itself.

Also, from GemologyProject.com is the subject of retardation.

In mineralogy, retardation means that one refracted ray of light is lagging behind another ray of light. When light enters an anisotropic (double refractive) gemstone, it is split into two rays -- a fast ray and a slow ray. Because the fast ray travels faster through the gemstone it will be ahead of the slow ray. When the slow ray leaves the gem, the fast ray would have already traveled an extra distance outside the gemstone. That extra distance is known as "retardation" and is measured in nm (nanometers).

I believe retardation to be caused by the complex path of least resistance light must traverse to make it through a complex medium of varying elements. Every photon performs every action within the pathways allotted by the crystal structure. So a more complex pathway will take longer to traverse.

This next image is of the trigonal crystal structure of alpha-quartz from http://som.web.cmu.edu/structures/S097-alpha-quartz.html. This was a great image depicting the trigonal crystal lattice and is not standard quartz, but close.

And this is an image from gemologyproject.com showing the telltale bullseye indication of quartz in a polariscope.

See the four shadowy triangles? This optical phenomenon appears to be an indicator, showing the light pathing around the trigonal atomic structure of the crystal lattice.

This addition is resulting from correspondence with D. Benjamin Marshall (MoonSplain of Tiktok

In regards to the propagation of a photons through "randomizing" molecules.

1. A pressurized stable system results in homogeneity of pressure (homeostasis) and therefore molecule distribution (in flux.) It isn't as random as thought.

2. Gravity is a collective effect.

3. This is the short answer. I have more to say but not here...this is a general idea that says enough...

Conclusion:

Light absolutely can take longer to get from point A to point B, but it doesn't have to slow down for that to happen. Quantum warping of light pathways can cause it to travel farther and take a longer time to traverse a medium.

Light in a Medium © 2021 by Jonathan K Gardner is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0