What are the properties of light?

Answer 1

Some properties are:

• Light travels in straight lines

• Light can be reflected

• Light can be bent

• Light is a form of Energy

Light does travel in straight lines at the level of classical physics. In true Universal strictness all motion is curved. Light not only can be reflected, but it can be absorbed so to speak. All light, which is classified as electromagnetic radiation, exerts forward impact pressure when it hits matter. Light can enter into matter causing atomic and molecular increased activity. This activity is usually in the infrared frequency, which we know as heat. This increase in activity is shown as electrons bumped up to higher levels of activity. The photon disappears, or hidden by being idle, almost mass-less. The matter will cool, and decrease its activity, and the electrons will drop back down a notch, and when this happens a photon will be now kicked out of the matter again as heat. If electrons are kicked loose within the matter it is called the photoelectric effect. This is only done with specific frequencies that sync in with the electrons.

It is my belief that light is not a form of energy. The basic definition of energy was for a long time and still is for some... "the ability of matter to do work as measured by work done." Max Planck, and especially Albert Einstein twisted this into mathematics and use the values of measurements, as entities. When light photons come from the Sun, it is their forward motion pressure that give us heat and visible light. Technically we don't see anything. Photons as different frequencies enter our eyes and hit the rod and cone cells that send EM signal to the brain to map out a picture for us. Actually blind children sometimes hit themselves in the eyes to "see" flashes that are sort of like a sighted person sees when rubbing our eyes. I will also mention that when we see a frequency of light that gives us a particular color, as from a red rose... it is the light reflected from the rose! The light we don't see is absorbed into the matter of the rose... and it is speculation as to what color the rose really is... If the rose is black... all the light was absorbed, and none reflected, and we are seeing the absence of light, or just not seeing, for that particular area.

I also want to mention here; that science has now measured the radiated particle called a neutrino, at a speed faster than the speed of light.

Back to the straight line trajectory... There is an extremely high probability that all the stars in the sky are not exactly in straight lines from where we view them. Most are many, many light years away, and gravitation is all inclusive to our Universe, thus bending space (probably) causing curvature of light coming to us.

Answer 2

The primary properties of visible light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarization

Answer 3

1