Robert Gilmore
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Science and the Photon
It was Albert Einstein who first theorized that the energy in a light beam exists in small bits or particles, and scientists today know that light sometimes behaves like a wave (somewhat like sound or water) and sometimes like a stream of particles. The energies of photons range from high-energy gamma rays and X-rays down to low-energy infrared and radio waves, though all travel at the same speed. The amazing power of lasers is the result of a concentration of photons that have been made to travel together in order to hit their target at the same time.
Examples of photon in a Sentence
New Atlas, 26 Sep. 2024
This motion takes too much energy to be induced by Earth’s infrared photons on their own.
—Joseph Howlett, WIRED, 25 Aug. 2024
Above that energy, photons will be sparse (they may still be produced by things like processes that accelerate particles).
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 31 July 2024
The photon might have been produced by a distant quasar and the role of the double-slit screen played by a galaxy whose gravitational field will deflect the photon leftward or rightward with equal probability.
—Quanta Magazine, 25 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Photon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/photon. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
photon
noun
Medical Definition
photon
noun
called also troland
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