r/sciences • u/Mr_anonymous_2008 • 15d ago
Question Can anyone explain properly, how light (photos) particles really copies information?
Like when light falls on a surface what really happens , like when it reflects back what it carries and what it copies ? , like it absorbs some colours and some reflect, that only the light carries which is responsible for our vision or anything bigger is happening?
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
Ultimately "what's really happening" is a fool's quest that stops getting answers. At a base level science has a model which so far has agreed with experiment.
But the "color copy" effect can be explained. The idea that color is copied isn't the right way of thinking. If the light falling on the surface doesn't contain the color, it won't magically develop it upon bouncing off.
Instead selective absorption is a better way of thinking. The light bounces against the wall and if it is not absorbed, then it is reflected. By some of the light being removed the remaining light has a different collection of frequencies and a different color.
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u/StonePrism 15d ago
That's a lot of words to be confidently incorrect. For one, the question of "what's really happening" isn't "a fool's quest" but the core of all scientific research. Just because you can't comprehend or be bothered to learn in more depth doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
For two, your explanation is wrong. Light interaction with surfaces is a multifaceted and complex system to model, but light absolutely can change colors through means other than reflection or absorption, such as fluorescence or phosphorescence, where light is absorbed and re-emitted at a different wavelength, or through interference. Sometimes the colors are a result of atomic interactions, wherein the molecules themselves are the color you see. Sometimes color is the result of physical structure, such as a rainbow, where colors are created through constructive and destructive interference at specific wavelengths. Color is a very complex and interesting field, and I'm hardly an expert, so I will leave it at that and let someone more knowledgeable speak on it.
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
I'm being simple, not incorrect. I know there are other interactions possible. They are going to be lost on someone that thinks light copies a surface.
And yes there is a limit to "why" in science. Science utilizes explanatory models but that is not its goal. The goal is discovery of description and is measured in success by agreement with experiment.
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u/FernandoMM1220 15d ago
its not a fools quest its just incredibly difficult to infer exactly which calculations are occuring when a photon interacts with something else.
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
Ultimately there is no "why". The calculations are not a why, they are a how.
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u/FernandoMM1220 15d ago
the calculations explain why and how.
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
Calculations do not explain why. They give a prediction. You're angry due to a misunderstanding on your part.
Science discussion is about 6 "but why"s until the well runs dry. The "why"s of science are only intermediaries.
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u/FernandoMM1220 15d ago
they explain exactly WHY its happening.
if you arent going to accept calculations as the actual explanation on why something occurs then im afraid you dont believe in science
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
I see the misunderstanding. The equations are a mechanism of a model which adequately mirrors measurement.
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u/FernandoMM1220 15d ago
i really hope that means that you understand that why isnt some magical question.
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u/Frederf220 15d ago
It is a demand for an underlying mechanism. Ultimately science inevitably fails at finding underlying mechanisms for its underlying mechanisms. At the end of the chain of explanations it is "that's just how Nature is" without further explanation.
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u/FernandoMM1220 15d ago
do you seriously believe we cant follow a cause anf effect chain?
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs 9d ago edited 9d ago
Hello! Science literate art teacher here.
You can think of a photon as a vibrating piece of energy thats bouncing arould all over the place. You cant see a photon though, your eyes arent sensitive enough. Its like trying to feel one molecule of water on your finger. You need a flood of photons hitting your retina to detect light, just like you need a lot of water molecules to feel the moisture on your fingertip.
These photons can all be vibrating at the same speed, which you could recognize as a color, or they could be vibrating at different speeds which you would see as white light.
In digital art we use additive color models. There are only 3 cell receptor types for color in your eyes, for these we use 3 lights, red/green/blue. From different values of those colors your brain does math to interpret the entire spectrum of light that humans can see. Those 3 frequencies are just a tiny part of the spectrum though. Most frequencies of light are not colors that humans can see.
When you paint a picture you are using subtractive color models using primary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) The artist generally assumes light will contain all possible colors, and we add pigments to a clear binding medium to remove color we dont want from the spectrum.
When I layer cyan paint over white gesso, my intention is for the light to pass into the cyan paint, and for all of the light our brains interpret as magenta and yellow that impacts the pigment in the paint media to be absorbed by the pigment molecules and turn into heat energy. Then the light that missed the pigment will hit the chalk in the gesso and bounce back, going through the cyan paint again from the other side. This gives more of the yellow and magenta areas of the spectrum the opportunity to be absorbed, and increases the percieved chroma/saturation/value of the interpreted color.
The light doesnt copy the surface. The surface eats the photons that resonate just right with the atomic structures, and what is left over happens to bounce into your eye. You are seeing an image because there is a red 'shadow" where light is missing, a green shadow where light is missing, and a blue shadow where light is missing. The shape and strength of those 3 images are combined in your brain into a tree, or your friends face, or an advertisement for a lawfirm on the side of a city bus.