Light: Waves and Particles [closed]








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I have three questions:


a. How do pictorial representations of electromagnetic waves translate to real life? They're shown as having perpendicular fields in phase, but how can the strength of a given field, be it magnetic or electrical, be perpendicular to the other. Basically, how does this wave actually propagate through space? 


b. Einstein theorized that the energy of a single photon increases with raised frequency. Frequency? What charicteristic of a photon makes it periodic so as to possess a frequency? Does its amount of energy fluctuate, or does this refer to the number photons per second, etc? 


c. How do photons propogate through space, this is almost a parellel question to my inquiry in point a. 




The problem here is that you're asking the wrong question.


I believe you are confused by the concept of particle-wave duality, which doesn't really exist. The electromagnetic wave is a macroscopic phenomenon that arises because quantum mechanical particles in aggregate may reproduce certain wave-like effects due to the nature of the wave function.


Basically, a photon is just a particle. The energy of this particle is an innate property. At the macroscopic scale, this may manifest as a "frequency" or "color," but neither or those properties is required to explain any physical phenomena.


The photon travels through space like any other particle. You don't ask how an electron travels through space, or if you do and get stuck, then you'll also have the same issue here...


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