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Old October 30th, 2007
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Re: Polarized vision

Quote:
Not a physicist, but I thought that the closer an object (that has mass) gets to the speed of light its mass increases rather than decreases. I thought that's why it's theoretically impossible to reach the speed of light - because as mass rises it takes more energy to accelerate, and eventually it'll take infinite energy in order to accelerate to the speed of light...
Yes, you are right.

It always amazes me when people start such explanations like this:
Quote:
That's relatively easy.
Now, there is little bit of a mix of everything in that explanation, but mainly special theory of relativity. That is normally not the first thing that comes into the mind when you talk about wave/particle duality.
I think it would be good to say that no one fully understands quantum mechanics and I am no exception. I have feeling that Pastor put his question with this in mind, but I might be wrong (it is not always easy to notice light irony in British humor).
I am sure that google could provide us with some basic wave/particle duality sites.
Also, it is not only photons that have this property (according to current theory), but everything else. However, the bigger the mass, the smaller the wave function of the object. Photons have zero rest mass. Duality is noticable in electrons as well. Cat, on the other hand, is far too massive to have significant wave.
Concept of time seems to be key in all this, but this is my personal nonsense.
I think Alun could explain this much better to us, but he does not seem to visit the forum anymore.

For further reading (between the dives):
Amazon.com: Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's...Amazon.com: Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's... Amazon.com: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and...Amazon.com: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and...

Last edited by octopus; October 30th, 2007 at 01:20.
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