Hi Sanjay,
Let me start by thanking you for your series of articles over the years... they have been very helpful and informative.
Additionally, in general, your article "Facts of Light Part 1" is very good, however, the engineer in me demands a response to the following:
This is patently untrue. UV-C, for example, has more energy per quantum than infrared, yet is absorbed significantly more than infrared.
Quantum interaction with a medium is not ballistic in nature... as I'm sure you're aware, a quantum of energy is either absorbed or it is not (as demonstrated by Einstein's photo electric effect). In the case of water, absorbtion is determined by the interaction of the energy quanta with the vibrational resonant frequency of hydrogen-oxygen covalent bonds. An excellent reference is here: Molecular Vibration and Absorbtion
Whilst I expect that this is well beyond the level of discussion you were targeting, it renders the quoted statement as misinformation, and you would have been better to ommit it.
Regards,
Mark Chapman
Let me start by thanking you for your series of articles over the years... they have been very helpful and informative.
Additionally, in general, your article "Facts of Light Part 1" is very good, however, the engineer in me demands a response to the following:
Now we can begin to understand why the red light gets absorbed quickly in water as a function of depth. It has less energy, and this energy gets absorbed and dissipated quickly; hence, the red photon does not penetrate deeply into the relatively dense medium of water.
This is patently untrue. UV-C, for example, has more energy per quantum than infrared, yet is absorbed significantly more than infrared.
Quantum interaction with a medium is not ballistic in nature... as I'm sure you're aware, a quantum of energy is either absorbed or it is not (as demonstrated by Einstein's photo electric effect). In the case of water, absorbtion is determined by the interaction of the energy quanta with the vibrational resonant frequency of hydrogen-oxygen covalent bonds. An excellent reference is here: Molecular Vibration and Absorbtion
Whilst I expect that this is well beyond the level of discussion you were targeting, it renders the quoted statement as misinformation, and you would have been better to ommit it.
Regards,
Mark Chapman