Re: feynman video and photons


Jamie Morken wrote:
I think a photon is really only a definition of magnitude,
not an actual particle.


Problem with that-- put a candle one foot from a square meter sized
photocell. The photocell has a bazillion little particles of some
photosensitive metal, say calcium, in ultra-fine powdered form. Each
calcium particle is isolated form all the rest.

Let's say you get 10^18 electrons per second out of the photocell.

Now put a x10 filter between the two. So far so good, you now count
10^17 electrons per second. But then harbor-freight-physics has a
sale, and you buy 16 more x10 filters. You put them between the candle
and the photocell.

Now you're getting around one electron per second out of the photocell.

For a Nobel prize, please explain how an electromagnetic wave, spread
out evenly over a square meter, can cause one electron to jump out.

For a second prize, explain why the electron sometimes jumps out after
1/10th of a second, when the electromagnetic wave hasnt delivered a
full second's worth of energy,

.

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