It suggest no such thing. Study of Fresnel equation should be
helpful.
I didn’t say you intended to suggest this. Only that it seemed to me
that a reader might come away with this impression.
The source of color in metals (or anything else, for that matter),
even pure metals, gets complex, involving the way photons and
atomic particles and crystal structures react with each other,
blocking, transmitting, and reflecting various wavelengths.
So photon and atomic particles and crystal structures react with
each other ! Did you find that pearl of wisdom on the Web? Can you
give example of atomic particles which are capable of reacting
with photon.
Oh C’mon, Leonid. Photons are energy, whether gamma rays, infra-red
rays, radio waves, or visible spectrum light, it’s all photons.
Photons react to all sorts of things. If they didn’t, they’d pass
through everything without being affected. That is a perhaps a good
definition of the elusive dark energy. IT, doesn’t seem to interact
that we can tell, other than with the effects of gravity. If it
interacted, we could see it. We can’t. Photons, on the other hand,
do. They get reflected by some things, absorbed by others, their
vibration directions twisted/polarized by yet others. Wouldn’t you
call these things interactions? How about a sunburn? if photons
didn’t interact with matter, we’d not be absorbing energy from UV
light in a manner that causes damage to cellular structures, ie a
sunburn. The heat from your torch that warms up your metal when you
solder, is infra red photons transferring energy to the atoms in your
metal, thus disrupting the crystalline structure of your metal when
it melts. Is this not an interaction?
Photons do indeed interact with other particles. Atoms can absorb
photons, reemitting the absorbed energy as other photons with
different wavelengths or energies (phosphorescence, fluorescence).
Some forms of radioactive decay involve atomic nuclei emitting a
photon as part of the decay process. Fusion reactions also do the
same (where do you think all that light from the sun comes from? It
started out as a ball of mostly hydrogen, not a ball of photons
waiting to come our way.
Also, can you explain the mechanism of how crystal structures
interact with these particles. I also very much interested in the
way they simultaneously block and transmit and reflect. Awaiting
explanation with great impatience.
First, understand I’m not a physicist. I’m a goldsmith. (I did,
however, have one once-well-known physicists in the family…) So
don’t expect me to get all the fine nuances of how and why it works
just right. But the fact that these things do indeed happen is basic
high school physics, and I do remember those classes, even if they
were many years ago, and no doubt by now, way out of date. But
examples of blocking, and transmitting and reflecting all at the
same time (a beam of light, mixed frequencies, not all at once to the
same photon perhaps). But consider a beam of white light hitting, for
example, a transparent gemstone. Some of the light will be reflected
by the surface, some will enter the transparent material (this
governed largely by the angle of incidence versus the refractive
index of the material. That interaction is with the crystal
structure itself, I think (though I’m not sure) rather than
individual atoms. But the crystal is also visible to the eye, and not
merely by reflected light from the surface, but by light
returned/reflected from inside the gem. Thus we see it’s color in
reflected light. It has color because not all frequencies reflect or
absorb the same. Some are reflected, others may be transmitted
unchanged and unabsorbed, others may be absorbed totally, and some
frequencies will be polarized, and more. That the photons are
affected by the material (an interaction) even if transmitted and not
absorbed can be seen in the refractive index, and it’s consequences,
which can alter the direction of that light beam and it’s photons,
and do it in part by actually changing (slowing down) the speed with
which the light travels within that material. Again, an interaction,
wouldn’t you say? Interactions of photons with materials do not have
to involve direct impact of the photon with an actual atomic
particle, but certainly such events can occur, and do. If I recall
right (I’m not gonna go look it up) but certain types of radioactive
decay depend on photons being absorbed by an atom (In addition to the
better known types involving neutrons doing so) I could be wrong on
that one. But still.
Oh, and your question about simultaneously block, transmit, and
reflect? Um, that’s kind of basic quantum physics. Mr. Heisenburg’s
cat and all that. If a photon has the potential to take more than one
path, or interact in more than one way, or otherwise has “options”,
then quantum physics says that all these things happen
simultaneously, so long as one doesn’t try to find out which one
actually happened. Without an observation, all states are true, and
the observation itself determines which happened. I’ve probably not
worded that properly, and the physicists in the group (are there
any?) most likely cringed. But that’s the gist of it. The weird part
gets when you start looking at the implications in the larger world,
where the uncertainty principal still applies. I cannot, for example,
walk through a wall. Or can I? The math says that it’s not
impossible, only very very very (and a whole lot more very’s)
improbable…
In one probability, perhaps an alternate universe located right
here, same place, separated by some infinitely small dimension we
can’t detect, I just did walk through that wall.
And in anther, perhaps you’ll concede what I was talking about…
(grin)
But I agree that this is also highly unlikely and improbable.
Oh, and a suggestion. If you’re ever up in the evening not making
jewelry and looking for entertainment. tune into the Science channel
on Cable. Yeah, I know it’s all pretty dumbed down. But Morgan
Freeman does have an entertaining show called “through the wormhole”
that actually touches on physics in a way that’s not always totally
lame, and is still accessible to non scientists. Fascinating. That
field has moved way past anything my great uncle, Alfred Lande
imagined. (google him. Obscure for much of his later career, though
he was a respected physics professor at Ohio state, especially after
he refused, on moral grounds, to join Oppenheimer and crew on the
Manhattan project. He admitted it had to be done, but couldn’t
himself be part of it. I have wonderful memories of visiting him as a
child (I was the child, not him) and wondering what a neat job he
had, since he’d be sitting for hours on end out on his cabin porch
in summers, overlooking North Lake Michigan. Rocking chair, a couple
pads of paper, a glass full of pencils already sharpened, and a stack
of Lindt chocolate bars. Just sitting, thinking, writing… My aunt
used to tell us not to disturb him 'cause he was working. I thought
that must be the greatest sort of job in the world…)
Ah well. and in some other alternate universe, I’d be able to write
a short, sweet, concise Orchid post without ending up rambling on
with fond memories. But to the point, one of his more interesting
books (to me) was a short one which attempted to simplify, explain,
and illustrate the principals of relativity and quantum physics in
non mathematical terms. It was aimed at young people. It was my
introduction to the ideas of physics. I think I first read the thing
at about age 7… That I understood it, and it made sense, is more a
testament to my uncles writing than to any unusual ability on my
part, and don’t you dare ask me to recite any of the math associated
with any of that. Other than the famous E=MC2, I haven’t a clue. But
should I ever decide I need those equations, I know where to look.
For that, perhaps I WOULD start with Google (and then likely the
local university library itself)
Peter
