Light Wave

ronaldoshaky

Has any scientist ever seperated a light wave into its electric and magnetic components?

Energy2010

ronaldoshaky wrote: »

Has any scientist ever seperated a light wave into its electric and magnetic components?

I could be completely wrong here but I think it would be impossible because the magnetic field is a relativistic effect of the light wave. I'd link you to an article but I cant find any good ones yet.

ronaldoshaky

Energy2010 wrote: »

I could be completely wrong here but I think it would be impossible because the magnetic field is a relativistic effect of the light wave. I'd link you to an article but I cant find any good ones yet.

relativistic effect? what do you mean.

entropic

ronaldoshaky wrote: »

Has any scientist ever seperated a light wave into its electric and magnetic components?

Although I don' know for sure I wouldn't imagine that they have. Mainly because a moving electric field creates a magnetic field and vice versa, hence why light can propagate through empty space.

To separate the magnetic field from the electric one first the light would have to be stopped with out being annihilated. Which I don't think is possible or if it is then its very hard.

Podge_irl

Whether the components of a light ray are electric or magnetic depends on your frame of reference.

ronaldoshaky

What would happen to light if it entered an electric field or a magnetic field?

Are there any journal articles, or scientists doing research on these topics?

Energy2010

ronaldoshaky wrote: »

relativistic effect? what do you mean.

I cant explain this well, I'm sure even my lecturer would find it difficult to do it justice. But I'll give it ago. Basically relativistic effects occur when certain high speed objects 'appear' to break the speed of light. It gets very complicated but has to do with time dilation, length contraction and magnetic fields around current carrying wires and in this case I think around light waves and of course thousands of other incidents.

A bad but sort of easy to understand example would be:
As an object approaches the speed of light its mass increases and keeps increasing, until a point when all extra energy given to the object in an attempt to increase the speed just adds mass to the object. This is a relativistic effect.

What would happen to light if it entered an electric field or a magnetic field?

Are there any journal articles, or scientists doing research on these topics?

I dont think anything happens light as it passes through these fields.



May I ask why you are so interested in this?

Kevster

In layman's terms, can we just say that you can't have one without the other? Therefore, if you 'extracted' the magnetic field somehow, you'd actually have nothing because it needs the electric field to exist. The same is true for the reverse situation.

Electricity 'naturally' creates an electromagnetic field, ronaldoshaky. There's probably a big one surrounding your monitor/PC right now due to all of the electricity flowing through it.

Kevin

Mr. Incognito

What would happen to light if it entered an electric field or a magnetic field?

It bends. That's how we can see into deep space and measure light distances.

Huge gravitational bodies like super planets bend light around them. Light is influence by gravity the same way as everything else. That's why it cannot escape a black hole.

ronaldoshaky

Energy2010 wrote: »

I cant explain this well, I'm sure even my lecturer would find it difficult to do it justice. But I'll give it ago. Basically relativistic effects occur when certain high speed objects 'appear' to break the speed of light. It gets very complicated but has to do with time dilation, length contraction and magnetic fields around current carrying wires and in this case I think around light waves and of course thousands of other incidents.

A bad but sort of easy to understand example would be:
As an object approaches the speed of light its mass increases and keeps increasing, until a point when all extra energy given to the object in an attempt to increase the speed just adds mass to the object. This is a relativistic effect.



I dont think anything happens light as it passes through these fields.



May I ask why you are so interested in this?

There is an example in my book about an electromagnetic wave incident on a filter which absorbs all the electric field. The question asks about what happens to the magnetic field as a result of this.

Energy2010

ronaldoshaky wrote: »

There is an example in my book about an electromagnetic wave incident on a filter which absorbs all the electric field. The question asks about what happens to the magnetic field as a result of this.

I'm pretty sure the magnetic field would be absorbed too.

c-note

in relation to ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES, I once read that:

the changing electric feild establishes a changing magnetic feild, which in turn establishes a changing electriac feild, etc and so on and so forth, which is why em radiation can propogate throughout space (with no physical medium), it esentially creates its own medium in which to travel.

as such i believe that the notion of seperating the varying electric feild from the varying magnetic feild is a non starter as each rely on the other for their existance.

ronaldoshaky

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

It bends. That's how we can see into deep space and measure light distances.

Huge gravitational bodies like super planets bend light around them. Light is influence by gravity the same way as everything else. That's why it cannot escape a black hole.

If light is attracted to a body, does that mean it has mass?

ZorbaTehZ

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

It bends. That's how we can see into deep space and measure light distances.

Light bending occurs because of gravitational effects. A magnetic field will not bend light, because photons are uncharged (leastwise provided its static there's a slight caveat that depends on the dynamics of the magnetic field, which could indirectly affect it)

ronaldoshaky wrote:

If light is attracted to a body, does that mean it has mass?

Yes, this was Einstein's discovery of mass-energy equivalence (at-least it was Einstein who formalised the idea and who proposed [latex]E=mc^2[/latex])

Genghiz Cohen

Does a photon have thickness? I assume it has height because it can be polarised.
Or is it that I don't understand polarisation....

Podge_irl

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Does a photon have thickness? I assume it has height because it can be polarised.
Or is it that I don't understand polarisation....

I don't entirely understand why you think a photon requires height to have polarisation.

Genghiz Cohen

Odds are I don't understand how it works then :pac:

amen

all polarization means is the orienation of the lights electrical field relative to the direction of the lights travel.

Genghiz Cohen

My current understanding of polarization.
Keep in mind, other than leaving cert physics, I don't know much.


As a light wave hits the polarizing filter, it is either aligned with the layers slots or it cannot pass through (like a kid stomping a triangular piece through a square hole). From this I take a photon must have height, otherwise it could not be polarized at all. But if it has height, what is it's width and length.

/awaits avalanche of corrections

Morbert

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

My current understanding of polarization.
Keep in mind, other than leaving cert physics, I don't know much.


As a light wave hits the polarizing filter, it is either aligned with the layers slots or it cannot pass through (like a kid stomping a triangular piece through a square hole). From this I take a photon must have height, otherwise it could not be polarized at all. But if it has height, what is it's width and length.

/awaits avalanche of corrections

Strangely enough it is the opposite case with light. The waves that are aligned with the slots do not pass through, as they are the waves absorbed by the slots. The reason this can happen with photons is they are not classical "billiard ball" particles, and exhibit wavelike properties.

amen

there is also the vector nature to consider as well