Trapping Light

[JimZero]

Sorry if this is a repeat, but the thread had gotten disturbingly far without mention of low level heat...

 

[kennychuck]

Originally posted by: hawk16
Would it be possible to trap light, this is a hypothatical explanation of what im asking. I know its not possible to do it fast enough.

If you made a room of all mirrors, completely mirrors, no material AT ALL that absorbed light. And you say had a flashlight and shined a light inside this mirror room and somehow you were able to close the mirror door faster then light. Would the light get trapped in there and stay lit or would it just disapate?

Like i said before, hypothetically speaking...

As a poster above mentioned, this sounds a little like a light clock (and the string theory program is on NOVA, not Discovery, fyi). An interesting device in theory, but I'm pretty certain it's also practically impossible.

In any case, all mirrors (to my knowledge) absorb SOME light, so your trapped photon would eventually be absorbed. If you had a ideal material that reflected all light, the photon would indeed stay trapped (barring quantum tunneling, which you could make very unlikely simply by making the walls of your sphere very thick).

 

[DrPizza]

Minor correction: light is not a particle, light is not a wave. Light is light. Sometimes it *behaves* like a wave. Sometimes it *behaves* like a particle. We treat it as a particle or we treat it as a wave to be able to understand it and its properties. But, light is light.

Another correction: the speed of light is not measured - the speed of light in a vacuum is the speed of light by definition. i.e. we could say that the speed of light is 3*10^8 meters per second, but then we'd have to say "that's nice. how long is a meter?" Today, the speed of light has been set by definition at exactly 299,792.458 kilometers per second. A meter is the distance light travels in 1/299792458 of a second.

found on google: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/R...ivity/SpeedOfLight/speed_of_light.html

 

[the splat in the hat]

L L LOL...


what he said !

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: piddlefoot
As l understand it even if we trapped light in a perfectly round mirror sphear, at some piont light would dissapate, for theres refraction in the glass of the mirror, and as l understand it not all of the light or photon energy is transferred in a deflection or reflection, leaving the light beam weaker over time, and light being so fast it would be a short amount of time as we measure it.
And if we did trap it what use would it be, being so limited in mass and energy ?

Thats pretty muh what we figure every time this comes up in physics class.
You're always losing energy when it changes direction.
Even if the mirror was 99% efficient (which is impossible) how long would it take light to bounce around 100 times in a small space?
Not very long at all.

And, as previously stated, it produces no useful function.

 

[sarotara]

Yes, it's possible to trap light, at least temporarily, but it's not done quite in the manner that you mentioned. Look at this thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=50&threadid=1611543&enterthread=y

 

[dcaron]

Originally posted by: herm0016
look up shroders cat. that will answer your question. quantumly speaking the room will be both lit and unlit untill you look, at which point it will colapse the probibility wave and have an outcome.

lol, poor kitty.

 

[Kyanzes]

Originally posted by: hawk16
Would it be possible to trap light, this is a hypothatical explanation of what im asking. I know its not possible to do it fast enough.

If you made a room of all mirrors, completely mirrors, no material AT ALL that absorbed light. And you say had a flashlight and shined a light inside this mirror room and somehow you were able to close the mirror door faster then light. Would the light get trapped in there and stay lit or would it just disapate?

Like i said before, hypothetically speaking...

You could also try to trap sound. Assume you have an orb that can reflect sound 100% in the inside. You would release a squall on the orb and close it immediately. Then you would have a squall stored for good for the remainder of your life (may be even beyond that). Wouldn't it be cool?

 

[ox1111]

Many people exept widely exepted theories as facts it plugues the net and mankind. Look at the widely exepted theories of history and know we are almost as far off, today.
Why would you want to trap light in mirrors? I doubt it could be done. Light is trapped in everything. Light is one of the purest forms of energy. Everything contains some energy and therefore contains some light a tree traps or converts light. the sun turns burning gas to light. Battery stores energy so it stores light. You said about a room of mirrors and a flashlight to trap light but all you need is a flashlight even more so if you charge it with solar cells. Matter is niether created nor destoyed it just changes form.

P.S. light is not the purest form of energy. therefore whether it has mass or matter is not proven but is has components other than energy.