Light waves coming from the sun or a light bulb are oriented in all directions. We can filter out all but one orientation with a polarizing filter. If you shine light onto a vertical filter with a horizontal filter behind it, no light will get through, as you would expect. When you put a third filter in between the two, with the polarization set to 45 degrees, a strange thing happens. Now some light gets through, a quarter as much as with one filter. What happens is half of the light gets through the second filter, but comes out polarized at 45 degrees. Half of that light gets through the third filter, but comes out polarized horizontally. Why?
Besides gravity and the electromagnetic force, there are two other forces which operate at the subatomic level. The weak nuclear force is associated with the behavior of nuclei that results in radioactivity and nuclear decay. The strong nuclear force holds the particles that make up atomic nuclei (protons and neutrons) together. Protons and neutrons are thought to be made up of more fundamental particles called quarks, with the strong nuclear force operating between the quarks. In some experiments with energetic photons interacting with protons it seemed as if the photons were also being influenced by the strong force. This encouraged scientists at Desy Laboratory outside Hamburg to carry out very-high-energy experiments involving photons in the early 1990s. Those experiments showed that photons behave as if they are complex entities made up of quarks, electrons, and other particles. We now have to come to terms with the idea that light can change into matter and back again, down at the level where time is measured in terms of the Plank time, 10-43 of a second. |
Quantum Mysteries Part 3. Polarization and Nuclear Forces
Re: Quantum Mysteries Part 3. Polarization and Nuclear Forces
Users who posted comments:
Anonymous Poster (2); Cardio07 (1); StandardsGuy (2); Yuval (2)