This kind of sad romantization of physical phenomena is weird to me.
I think romanticizing physical phenomena can be a really great tool to create a narrative and get people interested in the subject, or can just be a cool talking point about physics.
This example is pointless and kinda sad
If a photon from the sun misses the earth it will likely travel for billions of years into the void, most of them probably absorbed by random space dust. So hitting earth or hitting a human could be considered cool depending how you sell the narrative.
It’s possible to tell many different narratives. I just dislike the sad ones. There are many more cool ones
I’m not as against these “sad narratives” as you are, but I still think that this one just doesn’t make much sense. Photons hit random planets and stuff all of the time, so arguably hitting a living sentient being is one of the coolest things that could happen to a photon.
I think, from the photon’s perspective, the time between emission and absorption is instantaneous (since they’re traveling at the speed of light). i imagine a photon’s journey would feel like utter chaos.
Zero time and also zero distance due to length contraction
If we’re anthropomorphizing photons, lets imagine how it experienced time. Most of those 93 million miles was instantaneous. Then for the the tiniest fraction of a second you’re screaming through thickening atmosphere before hitting someone and making a cone in their eye dance around like one of those fan powered air dancers at a used car lot. Maybe you even bounced off one those fan powered air dancers at a used car lot.
The photon perceives the entire journey as instantaneous. Individual photons always travel at C. The EM waves propagate slower in materials like glass and water, but the individual photons do not slow down. So the thickening atmosphere part of your story is technically a little off. The speed of light is slower but the photons are not. It has to do with waves interference patterns.
Skip to 5:15 in this video for a better explanation than I could ever give.
More than 2 meters from my desk lamp
Some photons traveled the distance just to be blocked by your desk lamp
Actually we are part of the ground. We are the planet earth, we just move strangely
Cool!
This weekend a whole lot of sunlight had the opportunity of beating me about the face, neck, and arms. I’m not embarrassed, really, but I am a bit red in the face about it
Photons at their core don’t rally experience time because they are traveling like lighing fast.
Also they prob bounce around the sun (trapped by magnetic fields) for longer than they travel to Earth.
Also 2, sometimes starlight hits my eyes. Those poor very well traveled photons. Some might be even a bit red, but I doubt I’ve actually detected those.
Indeed, photons can take years to get from the sun’s core to it’s surface
From the light’s point of view, that distance should get reduced to zero due to length contraction anyway if I’m remembering correctly?
The light is always trying to kill me anyway, so I use SPF 60 stuff, clothing, and various other ways of blocking it so it’s stopped before it even reaches my actual skin.
You stop the light from reaching the ground, I stop the light from reaching me. We are not the same.
If I were a photon I’d probably be more interested in hitting a human than the ground
I saved it from the disappointment of being obstructed by Earth. Anyway, it’s not like it wasted any time on the journey.
Yeah, it was almost wasted hitting some shitty pavement and causing even more of a heat island problem in this city. But instead, it not only gets the honor of interacting with me, it even serves a useful biological purpose.
The light from other stars travelled much farther until you blocked it with your retinas. Sun needs to grow some thicker skin.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
To a handful of photons, I am a GOD.
