Reflectivity The ability for a surface to have light the photons bounce off of the surface in an opposite angle or vector does seem odd when you consider that the atomic structure of the materials making up the surface is mostly made of empty space. The empty space part may or may not be true however and the bouncing off part is only sometimes true since sometimes the light passes through sometimes even a great distance through and some times is immediately absorbed and sometime a mixture of the three. The reflection could be explained primarily with the concept of charge. As a photon approaches the atom the atom having the opposite charge repels the photon and sends it away from it at an equal speed or there about anyway since I would believe that the speed of light is not exactly the same but instead is nearly the same with very little difference when compared to the average. Since the effects of such things as mass and gravity have nearly no effect on such a small particle being much smaller than an electron and the effects of charge being fairly constant. Molecules as well as atoms would/do have a specific charge themselves due to the over all number of electrons in the outer shells of the atoms as well as the actual structure of the material as well such as in the differences between say graphite and a diamond for example where the lattice structure of the diamonds carbon structure is very different than the more linear structure of graphite which is also very different than regular carbon without any cohesive structure throughout. We could venture into the field of chemistry at this point however that is not the purpose of this. All three different structures of the same element do four different things: 1.) Some light does pass through. Although the diamond does more so than the other two. But it also reflects light from its surface as well. 2.) Reflects light at its original wavelength and opposite angle as well. For example if it approaches the surface at 45 degrees it leaves the flat surface at 135 degrees and so forth. 3.) The particles absorbed or better put captured into the actual materials structure and become heat. The heat in this case being a description of a more excited state of the atoms electrons into random orbits further away from the center. 4.) As a result from premise three the charge of the atom changes not so much over all but where the charge is located. Heat being in the infrared spectrum these particles would tend to be of a specific charge themselves when compared to the other wavelength.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 07:32:12 +0000
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