To be pedantic, photons never accelerate. They only ever travel at one speed in one direction
And as they’re massless, photons do not experience time. Regardless of how far a photon travels, from its perspective, the journey takes no time.
It also does not experience space, as the entire universe has been length contracted in its direction of motion into a 2d plane. It is simultaneously occupying every point along its path. So it doesn’t need to experience time.
It also does not experience, as it lacks consciousness
Well now we’re getting into philosophy
I have no consciousness and I must experience
How do you know, though? 🤔
I am therefore I must know.
Obviously it doesn’t experience space if it doesn’t experience time. It’s emitted and absorbed simultaneously in its frame.
Relativistic effects are cool
A photon would somehow experience the big bang, the heath death of the universe and everything in-between all at the same time.
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How do reflections work? Aren’t changes in direction caused by acceleration? Also aren’t photons affected by the gravity of black holes? How does that work?
Reflections involve the material absorbing and re-emitting photons back the other direction.
The curvature of light from gravity is actually space-time itself being curved by mass. The light continues on a straight path through a curved space-time. It looks like it changes direction from the outside, but that’s just the shape of the universe in that area.
That’s why we feel gravity. The space-time around earth is curved inward, so going forward in time would actually mean falling towards the center if we were stationary in space. The ground is constantly accelerating us upwards. Light does not get accelerated that way, so it follows the curvature.
If you want to get really deep into the reflection topic: https://youtu.be/rYLzxcU6ROM
Heyo that’s dope! Definitely adding that video to my watch later. Thanks for explaining that.
It is! I also found this video later that I think does a better job of explaining reflection: https://youtu.be/1n_otIs6z6E
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/1n_otIs6z6E
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Well that’s like, your point of reference, man
