From: et@teal.csn.org (Eric H. Taylor)
Subject: Re: Good Things come in Big Bangs
Followup-To: et@et.com
Summary: Frame of reference of a photon
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 22:28:22 GMT
Expires: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 06:00:00 GMT

In article <FRANL.92Aug18140710@draco.centerline.com> franl@centerline.com (Fran Litterio) writes:
>et@teal.csn.org (Eric H. Taylor) writes:
>
>> * A photon's reference frame (moving at the speed of light) always sees
>>   nothing but empty space.
>
>> * From the reference frame of a photon, the instant it sees something other
>>   than empty space, it has collided, and thereby ceases to exist.
>
>> * Photons do not see other photons.
>
>I think you are being too anthropomorphic.  You are assuming that
>concepts which apply to you in the macroscopic world also apply to a
>photon (e.g., the passing of time, being in a frame of reference,
>seeing things).

Perhaps. I intended that "see" is equal to "observe" or "interact".
And as has been pointed out in other posts, the photon's frame
of reference isn't a valid one anyways. In order to use the photon's
frame, several relativistic properties go false, such as, a photon
sees itself as being "at rest" (velocity zero) and in "zero time".
The point I was attempting to get at
is that photons do not age, decay, or interfere with other photons.
Photons may interact with matter. The conclusion that the photon's
frame of reference is invalid is of course based on relativity's
inability to accurately model that frame of reference. It is equally
logical (in this case) to conclude that the fault lies in relativity itself.
In other words, a photon's frame of reference could become valid with
the application of a better theory.

>> * Photons that are reflected do so by bouncing (elastic collision).
>
>Not true.  In fact, when two material objects bounce off each other,
>it's (virtual) photons that do the pushing.

The simple kinematics of elastic collision accurately model the
behavior of photons. For example, consider radio frequency photons.
Take a parabolic antenna (eg, satellite dish), point it straight up,
and drop a ping pong ball into it. Notice that the ping pong ball
will hit the focal point (horn, waveguide) after bouncing off the dish.
The same will happen for incoming photons.

  .                               .
      |        |
   .  o        o                 .
    . |        |                .
      .________|__*           .
         .     | /         .
             . |/      .
                  .


I am not sure how you mean "virtual" photons. One definition of virtual
photon is a photon that is not observable. Observable is defined as
being above the planck cutoff.

>--
>franl@centerline.com   || Fran Litterio                               
>uunet!centerline!franl || CenterLine Software R&D                     
>617-498-3255           || 10 Fawcett St, Cambridge, MA, USA 02138-1110

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