Stoping Light

[x35Agent]

I think the article about light
going faster is interesting but
I remember reading an article
last year in Discover magazine about scientists in Germany I think That
actually slowed light down to almost
a stand still Now I think that is

KEWL

[Szech]

Hey x35Agent: do you know if they were able to figure out if light was a wave or rods? When I took high school physics, they still hadn't figured that one out, but if they were able to slow it down that much, I imagine it would be easier to determine.

[x35Agent]

They never said all I remember is that they went into detail about the process. It was a good article though but I can't remember which issue it was in. I looked all over the house today and could not find it.

[narayan]

I believe they now say that it is a wave, not a particle.

[zskillz]

actually,acording to moder theoritical physics, light quanta are neither a wave or a particle, but the phenomena is called wave-particle duality...
it's really quite interesting though if you think about it, because I mean, there really is no way for us to even conceptualize this "wave-particle" duality quality or to describe it any better than that with language...
-z

[krusty the klown]

Light has both wave-like and particle-like properties. Remember that radio waves, micro waves, X-rays, gamma rays and visible light are all part of the same thing - the only difference is the energy of the photons (or quanta).

A simple way to think of a photon is like a snippet of a continuous wave.

You can do a simple demonstration to show light's particle-like properties - cut a large hole in a piece of paper and shine a light on the paper such that the light that travels through the hole projects onto any surface. Big deal, so you get a disc of light...... but you get the same pattern if you sprayed paint on the paper with the hole in: light behaving as particles. It's not too difficult to do an experiment to show light's wave-like nature, either.

What's also interesting is that you can show particles demonstrating wave-like properties, but the experiment requires some more complex kit than a bit of paper and a lamp! (an electron gun - like in a TV - a diffraction grating and a phosphorescent surface).

The speed of light is not constant (it is in a vacuum), the speed depends on the properties of the material through which the light travels. Normally, the actual difference between the speed of light in a vacuum and the speed through other media is small, but significant to see effects like rainbows and objects appearing to be kinked when they are half in and half out of water.

I guess if there was a material that slowed light sufficiently, this could be achieved, but I've never heard of it B4 http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[rtyp3]

I remember hearing about that. I THINK that somehow they ran it through water or something and slowed it down. I am sure their is more to it than that, but that is the basic way they did it.