On 11/28/2011 05:13 PM, admformeto wrote:
>
>
> "John Larkin" <jjla...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in
> message news:oh08d75p3e4gufh56...@4ax.com...
>> On Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:38:57 +0100, "admformeto" <
admfo...@onet.eu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <
micro...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:509f23fe-9da7-43d6...@z22g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>>> On Nov 28, 11:12 am, "
papar...@gmail.com" <
papar...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 28 nov, 16:03, "admformeto" <
admform...@onet.eu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > Mathew Orman
>>>>>
>>>>> >
http://www.faster-than-light.us/
>>>>>
>>>>> Another useless link and a strong candidate for the title of King of
>>>>> Moronica
>>>>
>>>> The constant of the speed of light demonstrates its energy is not
>>>> kinetic. As all light waves would be of the same colour if their
>>>> energy were kinetic.
>>>>
>>>> Mitchell Raemsch
>>>
>>> There is no kinetic energy in light or EM wave as the fields are
>>> mass-less.
>>> The question is about inertia.
>>>
>>> Mathew Orman
>>>
>>>
http://www.faster-than-light.us/
>>>
>>
>> Photons have momentum. Look it up.
>>
>> John
>>
>
> Yes, so they must also have inertia.
>
> Mathew Orman
>
>
http://www.faster-than-light.us/
>
>
What isn't meaningful is talking about photons as though they had a
separate existence, whereas they're just elementary excitations of the
EM field in a given set of boundary conditions.
EM fields have momentum and inertia--in fact the field's momentum
density is proportional to the refractive index, so if you shine a
flashlight on a glass surface, the reflected light pushes on the glass,
but the transmitted light _pulls_ on the glass. This effect was first
measured in the 1950s by R. V. Jones (one of my technical heroes) using
light bulbs and an optical lever. This is quite different from the
optical tweezers effect because it works even with plane waves, but it
isn't very big.
What makes photon drives such a losing proposition is that the
energy-to-momentum ratio of the electromagnetic field is so very big, so
it costs a ridiculous amount of power to get a tiny thrust.
(For EM fields, E=pc, whereas for matter at nonrelativistic speed, E =
p**2/(2M). The difference is a factor of 2c/v, which for a rocket with
an exhaust velocity of 4 km/s amounts to a factor of 150,000 penalty for
the electromagnetic drive versus a rocket.
As Jones says, the radiation pressure of sunlight is about equal to the
weight of one atomic layer's worth of the Earth's crust. _Not_ a big effect.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net