In my last post I showed what the movement of light in a material with a refractive index higher than one looks like. Just to be comprehensive I feel compelled to show with arrows what the movement of light in vacuum, with a refractive index of one, looks like as well.
For me this is so obvious that originally, I didn’t think it necessary to show the phenomenon of refraction showing paths of the movement of all elementary particles of energy (or dots). Now it seems obvious that such an image is required.
So here they are. In the upper image we have a circular collection of dots, with each dot moving linearly. Or using fancy mathematical language, perpendicular to the plane defined by the collection of spheres.
And above we have the image I showed in my last post. The movement of light in matter with a relatively high refractive index, such as water or glass, squeezes the moving ring to a helix. Now, with an arrow for each orbit it should be quite clear why the dots move the way they do. They have nowhere else to go.
And what is it that causes this refraction? It’s the fact that the ring cannot move in a linear path in liquids or transparent solids. But light can squeeze past the supramolecular shells, when the ring is folded along the ‘hinges’ to a helix. The angle in the hinge remains the same, only the direction of movement of each dot changes.
This means that the cone does indeed determine the ways strings of dots refract. While the angle of the cone relates to bending, the cone shape itself definitely is a cone of refraction. However, in the end it’s just terminology.
I hope this is it. I’ve finally tied the behavior of light to the behavior of matter using cones of refraction. It seems I don’t need anything else to complete the manuscript. But then again, I’ve said this before. Only when I’ve pressed submit will I be absolutely sure there won’t be any changes.
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