Submitted by Fine_Play_8770 t3_yzaxor in space
[removed]
Comments
dusty545 t1_iwyx6f0 wrote
Lights travels in straight line "rays" and is quantized in discreet packets called photons. Light also has wave-like behavior at the quantum level.
However, the emission source, such as a light bulb or star, often emits rays in many or all directions. It is quite difficult to emit rays in only one discreet thin beam direction. Light also scatters, re-radiates, reflects, refracts, and diffracts when traveling through a dense matter medium such as our atmosphere. Which is why turning on a flashlight in a dark room illuminates all of the walls around you and behind you.
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s1ngular1ty2 t1_iwyxzl9 wrote
You can think of light as a wave even from light bulbs. It is always a particle and a wave simultaneously.
[deleted] t1_iwywa50 wrote
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s1ngular1ty2 t1_iwyxuw8 wrote
Light is both a particle and a wave. When it travels through space it is both simultenously. The particle is called the photon.
space-ModTeam t1_iwyzlk4 wrote
Hello u/Fine_Play_8770, your submission "how does light expand?" has been removed from r/space because:
- Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.
Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.
NotAHamsterAtAll t1_iwyx08t wrote
It is actually unclear.... Wave/Particle duality and all that.
Ariquitaun t1_iwywdy1 wrote
That's a more complicated question than you think, as electromagnetic radiation (light) behaves both like a particle (called a photon) and a wave. It does travel on a straight line, unless deviated by gravity or magnetic fields and even then you could argue it's still travelling in a straight line through space in the case of gravity deviation.