POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : POV Photons : Re: POV Photons Server Time
7 Aug 2024 13:18:48 EDT (-0400)
  Re: POV Photons  
From: Arthur Flint
Date: 19 Nov 2001 20:10:23
Message: <Xns915ECD2A3FFEAmrartchesapeakenet@204.213.191.226>
Andrew scribis news:3bf96612@news.povray.org:
> What had happened was that the group velocity of the light had been
> increased above the normal speed of light.  Normally, the group velocity
> of light is the same as the signal velocity, ie information is
> transmitted at the group velocity.  However, in the case of anomalous
> dispersion, the group velocity is no longer the signal velocity, and no
> information is carried at this speed.  The peak of the pulse travelled
> at the group velocity, but energy did not.
> 
> More than this I can't tell you, I'm afraid.  However, many people note
> that this kind of thing is very prone to media misinterpretation, mostly
> because the "speed of light" NORMALLY refers to the speed of energy
> transfer, but in fact a wave has many different speeds of propagation,
> depending on exactly what property of the wave you are looking at.
 
That's the best explanation I have seen in a long while of what happened.



-- 
Gis poste, Arto.


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