I can only help on a general level.
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Originally Posted by afterburner
1. Photons are real particles right?
As in INDIVIDUAL photons DO exist
Is it a physical particle? I know its supposed to be energy, but in that case - what IS energy?
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I like to think of matter as condensed energy. However, a photon does not have mass (matter), it has energy (and momentum). If you allow energy into your idea of "physical", then it certainly is physical. It hurts to look at the sun, right?
[if you do look, tell me what color you see.
]
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4. Photons do not decay.
So basically all photons created during and after the big bang (assuming it happened) still exist today (im not sure about this one, becasue i know photons can get absorbed, but then dont they get re-released again, just at a different wavelength?)
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I think many gamma rays might be offended with this line of thinking.
Sometimes they get "released" at the same wavelength (elastic scattering).
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7. Distinguishing photons?
It is impossible to distinguish between individual photons right, except their wavelength, but photons of the exact same wavelength are indistinguishable? is this correct?
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Their propogation has aliginment. It is a transverse wave with electric and magnetic field orientations which are definable.
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8. Photons deviating when travelling great distances?
When a photon gets created, in some galaxy on the other side of the universe, and we observe it...does or did that photon ever change its cource?
That is to say, does a photon ALWAYS travel in a straight line? (this is assuming there are no gravitational forces acting on the photon) I ask becasue they travel in waves...read below
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From its point of view, I think, yes. However, space is warped here and there, so it will appear to us as bending (and stretching).
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9. Photons travelling in waves
Photons travel in a wave-like fashion. Is this correct? im not referring to the wave function. What i mean is do photons actually have a peak and a trough. Do these photons go "up and down" aswell as travel at the speed of light in a particular direction?
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(see above)
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11. The energy of a photon depends on its wavelength
So once again, what exactly is energy, if it is determined simply by the wavelength of a photon?
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I am unclear what you are asking. Its speed also is important to its energy. Wavelength is not a provider of energy, but it does help measure how "hot" it is.
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12. Whats the distance between photons?
According to antonisebs calculation, there are 1.2x10^13 photons per cubic meter of daylight at any one time, not per soecond.
Im assuming that number is smaller, but not significantly smalled out in a remote region of space. Would that be a correct asumption?
Also, that calculation is for photons emitted from from the sun, what about all of the other photons released from other stars, galaxies, this planet, they also must be there. As in we should add all of the other potential photons that are technically there, not just from our sun (basically he number should be greater?)..i dont know if that made sence...
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The number of photons in a given spot varies inversely as the square of the distance. If you move twice as far away from the sun, you will recive 1/4 th the number of photons. This law applies to all the other light sources out there. There are a fininte no. of sources, all aging, and space is expanding, so the number is limited and does vary with location and time.
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13. Photons as a ether?
With that many photons per square cubic meter, do the math for square millimeter for a better picture - THATS A LOT OF PHOTONS!! at any one time in a millimeter cubed of space
Is it safe to say, that everything in the universe is in an "ocean" of photons? As in we are just floating in this stuff. (as well as gravitons among other things, but ill leave those for another thread )
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Don't forget the humble neutrinos.
(see above for more)
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Color as we know it does not really exist...its just something that our human, earthly eyes see or "pick up".
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Hmmm, I don't remember reading this anywhere in any heliochromology book.
But, ok, it is just what our eye and brain dream up. [Dr. Lamb coined the phrase "retinex" to incorporate the idea that both eye and brain work together to produce images, I think.]
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I guess its easier to start thinking of the room you are in with ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTONS...you see what i mean...everything is colorless, the same, indistinguishable, black...Now this is the tough part...Pretend you cant see the objects in your room, but you KNOW where they are...Now keep that same colorlessness when we add photons(pretend you know where they are aswell)...track these photons mentally (obviously not ALL of them, just a few) What do you get? Think of the example where a tree falls in a forest and noone is tehre to see it..just a room where photons(energy) are bouncing around, getting absorbed, being released again..this is the world we live in? You can extend that though of colorlessness to our solar system, galaxy, cluster, and the universe...all in a "ocean" of these photons...
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Shoot, I'll just be tickled to know the color of the sun, then I'll consider such a gedanken.