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Home Q & A Board Science-Related Homework Help Physics
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Leon.g Leon.g
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11 years ago
There is in particular one problem whose exhaustive
solution could provide considerable elucidation.
What becomes of the energy of a photon after complete emission?

/ Max Planck
Nobel Lecture, June 2, 1920 /
==================== .
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wrote...
#1
11 years ago
A photon's energy is kinetic energy. When emitting ,it will "hit" other electrons and transfer some of it's energy to the electron. When the emisson completes, it's energy are all transferred to other electrons in some atom...
wrote...
#2
11 years ago
Again, please specify your problem more.

Complete emission by what?

In any case, a photon's energy flies off with the photon until it interacts with something else.  Unlike your other problem (which was nonsense), this problem is trivial.  But like the other problem, you're on the verge of asking something significant with a little detail or context, but not quite there yet.
wrote...
#3
11 years ago
Usually it dissipates into heat. Sometimes the photon's energy can be transferred into another kinetic form, such as when a photon hits a sheet of metal and kicks out an electron via the photoelectric effect.

So, in short, it probably converts into heat. You see this everyday when you stand out in the sun or if your hand sits under a lightbulb.
wrote...
#4
11 years ago
I'm not quite sure what incomplete emission would be like, but the photon has its own energy, which will be passed on to whatever absorbs it. Eventually, the energy will get dissipated as heat, as electronic energy is converted into vibrational energy, which is scattered by molecular collisions.

I am sure that Planck was thinking of a very profound problem, but I can't see what it was from this very brief quotation.
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