Ron Parker <ron### [at] povrayorg> wrote:
: Understanding refraction (and diffraction, too) requires one to see the 
: energy as waves instead of as particles.  It's impossible to understand as 
: long as you keep thinking of them as strictly photons.

  In fact, I personally like to think about light as a(n electromagnetic) wave,
which just sometimes happens to act like a bunch of particles for some
weird duality phenomenon.
  I know that this "photon" idea has got so strong in almost 100 years that
many people only know about photons and nothing else. They don't even
understand what is a wave. Of course this is logical: It's easier for the
human mind to grasp the concept of a tiny particle "flying" in space than
an esoteric "wave" which exists and advances in the vacuum.
  I personally like to think that photons do not really exist, but they are
just a "mathematical help" to understand the behaviour of electromagnetic
waves. As many other things in quantum mechanics, there's a minimal amount
of eletromagnetic radiation which can exist, and every amount of
electromagnetic radiation is a direct multiple of this minimum amount. This
minimum amount is what we call "photon". Due to its properties it makes the
wave sometimes act like if it was made of particles.
  The wave itself is just an advancing phenomenon caused by changes in the
electromagnetic field. Of course I don't claim that I fully understand this.

-- 
#macro N(D,I)#if(I<6)cylinder{M()#local D[I]=div(D[I],104);M().5,2pigment{
rgb M()}}N(D,(D[I]>99?I:I+1))#end#end#macro M()<mod(D[I],13)-6,mod(div(D[I
],13),8)-3,10>#end blob{N(array[6]{11117333955,
7382340,3358,3900569407,970,4254934330},0)}//                     - Warp -

Post a reply to this message

Cerenkov radiation (BTW; the first C should really have an inverted "^"
above it, like in unicode:010C) is caused by the fact that tachyons (FTL
particles) have an negative-imaginary total energy, and they can
actually accelerate by LOSING energy; this is given off as Cerenkov
radiation

I think this thread would make more sense if it was ROT-13'd

-- 
From the Grey Knight
//@---signature---
//  Grey Knight's site of the week: 
url{ "http://mathworld.wolfram.com" }

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 14:45:28 +0000, s1631001 wrote:
> Cerenkov radiation (BTW; the first C should really have an inverted "^"
> above it, like in unicode:010C) is caused by the fact that tachyons (FTL

I was right there with you right up to the point where you mentioned
tachyons, which haven't been proven to exist.

Cerenkov radiation is the shockwave from plain ol' particles that happen to
be going faster than whatever the speed of light is in the medium in which
they're traveling.  Same as a sonic boom, but with light.

--
#macro R(L P)sphere{L __}cylinder{L P __}#end#macro P(_1)union{R(z+_ z)R(-z _-z)
R(_-z*3_+z)torus{1__ clipped_by{plane{_ 0}}}translate z+_1}#end#macro S(_)9-(_1-
_)*(_1-_)#end#macro Z(_1 _ __)union{P(_)P(-_)R(y-z-1_)translate.1*_1-y*8pigment{
rgb<S(7)S(5)S(3)>}}#if(_1)Z(_1-__,_,__)#end#end Z(10x*-2,.2)camera{rotate x*90}

Post a reply to this message

Ron Parker wrote:
> I was right there with you right up to the point where you mentioned
> tachyons, which haven't been proven to exist.
I was using the word tachyon to refer to a particle travelling faster
than local c. Sorry, that wasn't very nice of me...

BTW: I'm trying to put together a collection of all the news.povray.org
signatures; does anyone care?
 
-- 
From the Grey Knight
//@---signature---
contact{ email "gre### [at] yahoocom" }
//  Grey Knight's site of the week: 
url{ "http://mathworld.wolfram.com" }

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 16:05:13 +0000, s1631001 wrote:
> Ron Parker wrote:
>> I was right there with you right up to the point where you mentioned
>> tachyons, which haven't been proven to exist.
> I was using the word tachyon to refer to a particle travelling faster
> than local c. Sorry, that wasn't very nice of me...
> 
> BTW: I'm trying to put together a collection of all the news.povray.org
> signatures; does anyone care?

I dunno if anyone cares, but it sounds like a fun project.  I've rendered
most of them, but not kept copies.  Note that I have several (I think it's
up to seven now) that run in random rotation, so you might have to look 
carefully to collect the whole set.  

-- 
#macro R(L P)sphere{L F}cylinder{L P F}#end#macro P(V)merge{R(z+a z)R(-z a-z)R(a
-z-z-z a+z)torus{1F clipped_by{plane{a 0}}}translate V}#end#macro Z(a F T)merge{
P(z+a)P(z-a)R(-z-z-x a)pigment{rgbf 1}hollow interior{media{emission 3-T}}}#end 
Z(-x-x.2x)camera{location z*-10rotate x*90normal{bumps.02scale.05}}

Post a reply to this message

> I think this thread would make more sense if it was ROT-13'd

Preraxbi enqvngvba (OGJ; gur svefg P fubhyq ernyyl unir na vairegrq "^"
nobir vg, yvxr va havpbqr:010P) vf pnhfrq ol gur snpg gung gnpulbaf (SGY
cnegvpyrf) unir na artngvir-vzntvanel gbgny raretl, naq gurl pna
npghnyyl nppryrengr ol YBFVAT raretl; guvf vf tvira bss nf Preraxbi
enqvngvba

V guvax guvf guernq jbhyq znxr zber frafr vs vg jnf EBG-13'q

--
Sebz gur Terl Xavtug
//@---fvtangher---
//  Terl Xavtug'f fvgr bs gur jrrx:
hey{ "uggc://zngujbeyq.jbysenz.pbz" }


--

Rick

Kitty5 WebDesign - http://Kitty5.com
POV-Ray News & Resources - http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA

Post a reply to this message

> I think this thread would make more sense if it was ROT-13'd (and
spellchecked)

Prefab enqvngvba (OGJ; guru sedge P fubsy beryl unit an verger "^"
knobbier vg, ever van havpbqr:010P) if panfry old guru smog gung gunplay
(SGY
cnegvpyrf) unit an rangier-vzntvanel bony rarely, nag girl pan
phenyl nppryrengr old YBFVAT rarely; guff if tire bass no Prefab
enqvngvba

V guava guff govern boy nor zebra far vs. vg junk EBG-13'q

--
Sobs guru Teri Ragtag
//@---fvtangher---
//  Teri Xavtug'f fever bus guru jerks:
hey{ "eggs://zngujbeyq.bison.pubs" }


--

Rick

Kitty5 WebDesign - http://Kitty5.com
POV-Ray News & Resources - http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA

Post a reply to this message

Carson radiation (BTW; the froth C shovel orderly have no irate "^"
above it, rare in Unicode:010C) vs. nasal big the fib that tracing
(FTL
particles) have no entire-imaginary opal energy, ant they can
curtly accelerate big LOSING energy; this vs. giver off abs Carson
radiation

I thing this tires owl ape moron sane if. it wax ROT-13'd

hmm - unscrambling and spellchecking the scrambled spellchecked message is
rather interesting

(sowwy)
--

Rick

Kitty5 WebDesign - http://Kitty5.com
POV-Ray News & Resources - http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA

Post a reply to this message

s1631001 <s16### [at] namtarqubacuk> wrote:
: I was using the word tachyon to refer to a particle travelling faster
: than local c.

  "Local c"? I think that's a misleading term as c is constant. Always.

-- 
#macro N(D,I)#if(I<6)cylinder{M()#local D[I]=div(D[I],104);M().5,2pigment{
rgb M()}}N(D,(D[I]>99?I:I+1))#end#end#macro M()<mod(D[I],13)-6,mod(div(D[I
],13),8)-3,10>#end blob{N(array[6]{11117333955,
7382340,3358,3900569407,970,4254934330},0)}//                     - Warp -

Post a reply to this message

On 28 Nov 2001 15:56:31 -0500, Warp wrote...
> s1631001 <s16### [at] namtarqubacuk> wrote:
> : I was using the word tachyon to refer to a particle travelling faster
> : than local c.
> 
>   "Local c"? I think that's a misleading term as c is constant. Always.

Not really.  Why do you think that c is usually expressed as the speed of 
light in a vacuum.  The whole reason refraction works is due to changes 
in the speed of light in various materials.

c is *always* the fastest that anything can travel ina given medium, but 
the actual numerical value in km/sec (or whatever the correwct SI units 
are) varies from material to material.

Of course I could be misunderstanding what you mean.

Bye for now,
      Jamie.

Post a reply to this message