Can I tell you what is happening now you appear to be listening .... I call it duality disaster.

Ok I am going to give you a different example ... you are probably familiar with and may even use wifi connection or a mobile phone.

What I want you to do is imagine yourself locked in a cupboard with the door closed the question is how does the signal get there? The usual layman answer is the waves come under thru any gap because layman relate these two items with radio waves.

The problem is your visible light, a laser light, wifi signals and mobile phones are all the same thing just the frequency varies .. they are all electromagnetic waves.

Try explaining the cupboard reception problem if you consider wifi or the mobile phone signal as a particle ... what are the odds partciles would bounce under the door or thru gaps to give you receiption smile

Do you see the problem?

You problems you are having with light in your experiment is because you consider the light a particle ... IT ISN'T it is most definitely a wave.

As a wave it doesn't collapse to the silly classical image you draw of a particle moving +-30km/s .... that is what is leading you to completely crazy answers.

You will note that the moment Paul turned it to a wave it was immediately obvious to him the wave would Doppler something you were shocked at.

The only reason the particle story of light was ever told because it was thought light only moved in a straight line like you see in a laser but with science knowledge we now know that isn't true.

The weird part is if light truly were a particle there would be easily identifiable results which would be obvious such as no wifi and mobile phones not working in a cupboard smile

What I want you to do is go to all of your funny pictures and where you draw a photon of light draw concentric rings representing a wave ... does the story make more sense now!!!!

A funnier example is try and tell the story of how x-rays penetrate things if they are a particle as well ... see the problem laugh


Most of your problems stem from the fact you keep viewing light as a particle ... IT ISN'T .. stop drawing it as a particle in your pictures and see if it makes more sense!!!!

A funny related story you may find enlightening

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-orbital-angular-momentum.html

Last edited by Orac; 10/09/13 11:44 AM.

I believe in "Evil, Bad, Ungodly fantasy science and maths", so I am undoubtedly wrong to you.