When Lights Collide. what will happen?

[quakesand 0]

What exactly will happen if I put two very intense light together?Is it possible to make a big explosion?Or just some sparkle?My mother thinks it will create chemicals.But i think it might just mix together and make the middle stronger, just because I think lights cannot touch each other, or anything else. So if you want to slice through things you do not need to use and strength, just put it there and it's gone.and by mixing two of them together, will they only mix up into a really hot point of laser? or just stops when they collide?Edit:sorry, it should be when lights collide not what.

Edited January 19, 2007 by quakesand (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

if you put two intense lights together you get one very intense light. I dont quite understand what you mean by putting them together though. And what you mean by when light collides.Also to create a laser its more complicated than just a bright light, its something about the way they energise the photons or something, look it up in google. Also its not really possible to "create" chemicals or any kind of matter, or so they say anyway! you can transform it, eg oxygen and hydrogen are gasses but when they join they become water and they can become bleach, three totally different things, gas, water, bleach. But you cant create oxygen, atleast they say so and it does seem logical!

[fffanatics 0]

When you combine light you just get the two light waves superimposed on each other to form a new light. This new light can either be very strong, very weak or somewhere in the middle depending on the difference in wavelengths and how much the two waves are offset when they interact together. This offset is called the phase shift. However, if you send 1 photon into another (a photon is a massless particle that basically is what makes up light and is another way of looking at it at a quantum level) then you can get an explosion but it very small since it has no mass even though it moves at the speed of light (since it is light). The only way to get a large explosion would be using electrons or protons even instead of photons since these have much larger masses. The problem is that it takes too much energy to get these particles up to a high enough speed and is extremely hard to get them to collide with another moving particle.

[osknockout 0]

What exactly will happen if I put two very intense light together?

Ok, what exactly DO you mean by 'light'? I mean, from what you've wrote, it seems like you're talking more about fusion or stars.

 

Also its not really possible to "create" chemicals or any kind of matter

Sure it is. Your classical E=mc?, converting energy to matter.

 

However, if you send 1 photon into another (a photon is a massless particle that basically is what makes up light and is another way of looking at it at a quantum level) then you can get an explosion but it very small since it has no mass even though it moves at the speed of light (since it is light). The only way to get a large explosion would be using electrons or protons even instead of photons since these have much larger masses. The problem is that it takes too much energy to get these particles up to a high enough speed and is extremely hard to get them to collide with another moving particle.

Actually I've never heard that one before. I know that Pauli's exclusion principle states that no two fermions can't occupy the same space at the same time, but I'm pretty sure that photons are bosons. I'm not sure how they react, I mean for all we know they could just go straight through each other. Any physics majors in here?

[Yratorm, LightMage 0]

What exactly will happen if I put two very intense light together?

Is it possible to make a big explosion?

Or just some sparkle?

My mother thinks it will create chemicals.

But i think it might just mix together and make the middle stronger, just because I think lights cannot touch each other, or anything else. So if you want to slice through things you do not need to use and strength, just put it there and it's gone.

and by mixing two of them together, will they only mix up into a really hot point of laser? or just stops when they collide?

 

Hmmm, talk about vaguest of vague questions. As I don't really understand the question, I will provide several answers. Choose what fits.

 

Well a laser is not a light emission as you understand it. I'm assuming you're talking of flashing two powerful light beams at each other. What will happen in the 'center' is certainly not a laser or the formation of chemicals (again, for the purity of the experiment we will assume that all this takes place in a vacuum, where there are no 'raw' materials). What happens when two wave patterns meet can be quite interesting - for example if both beams are of equal intensity and you can get the two patterns to 'cancel' each other out exactly, then both beams will disappear.

 

 

If you were talking about lasers operating in an environment that contains 'raw materials' then it is indeed possible to use an extremely powerful laser to trigger a fusion reaction - the machine that produces the laser would have to be about as large as a football field, perhaps more. Not certain, my science here is rusty.

 

If you're talking about particle collisions, the collisions of certain types of particles result in sub-particles like quarks. As for individual photons - it would be extremely difficult to get two of them in the same place at the same time, really. Now tachyons, that's a different story - two tachyons are supposed to be able to occupy exactly the same place at exactly the same time, with the minimum of pushing and shoving, but then the tachyon particle is (for practical purposes) a fabulous, magical animal - we could just as well talk of Unicorns!! No, no, just kidding.

 

----------------------------------------

Now this may interest the original questioner - if you take two GALAXIES and fling them together, they will pass through each other with the minimum of ill-will. Strange, isn't it?

 

Just try it for yourself, it really works

Edited January 17, 2007 by Yratorm, LightMage (see edit history)

[quakesand 0]

Actually I'm talking about something like a light saber.what will happen when they hit each other?I also do not think it might do some chemical reaction, since they are just laser...will they bounce off? or just go through each other?sorry, I that didn't really make it clear.

[fffanatics 0]

Actually I've never heard that one before. I know that Pauli's exclusion principle states that no two fermions can't occupy the same space at the same time, but I'm pretty sure that photons are bosons. I'm not sure how they react, I mean for all we know they could just go straight through each other. Any physics majors in here?

I am a physics major which is why i knew of this. Basically this was the first of many experiments that were performed when they started to quantify light as a particle. However, i could be wrong its been a few years since we discussed this in Quantum Physics. Maybe they only do this will electrons, protons, and neutrons.

Actually I'm talking about something like a light saber.what will happen when they hit each other?

First of all, there is no way to make a light saber and phyisically it appears to not be possible. The reason is that it is a beam of light that has a certain length and acts as if it is a solid. First of all, lights are waves or massless particles traveling at the speed of light like i previously mentioned. There is no way to create a beam of light that is only a certain distance long that has a constant glow for that distance and then disapaits. Its like shinning a flashlight. The light slowly gets less bright as the disperses. Secondly, even though light can be quantified as a particle, it still is light. Unless you have a beam that consumes a large amount of power (way more than a typical laser) there is no way it could act like a sword or a solid and when they would colide it would just do nothing and they would just go through eachother and combine into a single wave at that point and disperse accordingly.
Edited January 17, 2007 by fffanatics (see edit history)

[amit nigam 0]

first of all i would like to say that the question is very complex or vague....or...i donno...but as far as i can understand it.....when we pass two light beams from opposite directions i think that we must get some kind of interference pattern...since light will behave as a wave in that case ( though i myself am not able to have a logical reason that why light will not behave as particle...if someone can help). therefore their must be bright and dark fringes...but since white (normal) light contains light of different wavelengths...therefore i think that it will get blurred and we will not be able to see a pattern and we will feel as if nothing has happened.....but still i would say that it is a very complicated topic...and i m myself not sure why light will not behave as particle....maybe its the anomaly with the light itself....keep thinking

[osknockout 0]

Well hey, this is a theoretical arena isn't it?
So let's suppose that you could indeed make a 'light saber'.
Then you'd just have laser flying through from base to top, right?
So if you swung one against another, it'd just go straight through (assuming no solid Jedi crystals interfering)
'cause no momentum can be carried through light.

I am a physics major which is why i knew of this. Basically this was the first of many experiments that were performed when they started to quantify light as a particle. However, i could be wrong its been a few years since we discussed this in Quantum Physics. Maybe they only do this will electrons, protons, and neutrons.

Oh, nice. Well, I'm fully sure... I mean, if you can have electrons absorb photons ad infinitum, wouldn't that be having multiple photons in one place? How else would the photoelectric effect work?

but as far as i can understand it.....when we pass two light beams from opposite directions i think that we must get some kind of interference pattern

Hmm... sounds almost a bit like Young's double slit experiment. Actually it'd be hard to tell wouldn't it? I don't know if it would necessarily interfere, but I do believe we'd have to know the wavelength of each beam in order to determine interference.

[quakesand 0]

Hey people really did made light saber before.But it's very expansive..and unstable@osknockoutyea, maybe things just won't happen and they go through each other...

[fffanatics 0]

Hey people really did made light saber before.But it's very expansive..and unstable

Do you have a link or any reference to this because as far as i have heard it still is impossible to do and physically impossible. However, if i am wrong it would be nice to know and maybe read into how they did it.

[Yratorm, LightMage 0]

Right, now that I know the question my own personal thoughts on light-sabers:

 

Firstly, I think you are mistaken if you think anyone has made light-sabres on this planet. You must be thinking of some other planet that you encountered in your travels. Hmmm, I believe hearing about something like that being done on the planet Vrexus Theta in the Andromeda Galaxy - but don't believe it, it's just hearsay

 

Right, right, kiddin.

 

Now, to answer your question. I believe that our understanding of the universe and the way it works is more limited than we think. This is because, to an extent, our science is an extension of the human brain, and the human brain originally developed on the 'survival of the fittest' principle and not on the 'survival of the being best able to understand the true way the universe works' principle.

 

My point? There might be 'blind spots' in our science that we cannot recognize, because at the moment our brains simply refuse to see them, because these areas are too alien to our brain's functional parameters.

 

 

Now, by today's science, I would say that making a saber that functions EXACTLY as the Jedi sabers function (as shown in the movies) would be well nigh impossible. However, it may indeed be possible in some future (and there may be limitless possible futures) to manipulate light in fields so that it acts as a solid object, and cuts through material, etc.

 

I can't see how it would be done, but I won't say it's ultimately impossible. Just as faster than light travel just may be possible. In admitting the possibility of these things I merely admit the relative ignorance of humanity as compared with humans say four billion years hence, to whom a faster than light craft might be something so primitive as to be completely irrelevant.

 

 

A clue - if the universe is NOT quite how our brains (and the science resulting from our brains) sees it, then it is also possible that we have quite a few basics about it wrong.

 

So the Way to make your saber might be staring us right in the face, but until we can see that Way, we cannot make it.

 

My advice? Wait a little while - not long, a billion years or two should certainly see us able to make light sabers. But by that time, we'll also probably realize just how futile it is to make them - or any other weapon of war, for that matter.

 

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Now, something to interest the original writer of this document. If you would like to try out something rather Jedi-like, did you know that it's not particularly hard to deflect thrown ninja stars with a katana? To try this out, use a stick in place of a sword, and have a friend throw several square pieces of rubber at you - after a while you'll be fast enough to deflect or evade every one of them with your 'sword'. That may not be as good as having a light-saber, but it should be fun and even quite interesting. Take care, all.

[osknockout 0]

Now, by today's science, I would say that making a saber that functions EXACTLY as the Jedi sabers function (as shown in the movies) would be well nigh impossible. ... can't see how it would be done, but I won't say it's ultimately impossible.

Right, it's well nigh impossible, but you won't say it's ultimately impossible. Oh, our sense of linguistic humor.Anyway, to be a bit more serious, treating light as a solid object would be a hard task indeed, but for the purposes of any 'lightsaber' it would not be necessarily required. Allow me to clarify this one a bit more... it is possible to contain plasma in the center of a container by simply using the magnetic force thereby making the so called 'magnetic bottles' with a torus or such for fusion. This is done without any actual matter isolating the plasma. Hence, it appears as if some solid object is keeping the plasma centered when nothing is doing anything of the sort.

Now *hypothetical mode* if you were to use some sort of extendable electromagnet on the interior of the beam part of the lightsaber per se that was strong enough to curve the laser from only one side, then we could start talking about a physically possible lightsaber.

[galexcd 0]

I'm not too sure but what i want to find out is how george lucas thinks it is even remotely possible to make light sabers!?! #1, the light seems to have substance, if it hits another beam of light, it stops, instead of going through and since when does a light stop 5 feet away from its source?

[csp4.0 1]

a light saber's [blade] is made of pure energy with no mass, the reason it's hard to control (people getting tired after using it) is because that it emits very powerful electro-magnetic waves that interact with things which makes it hard to control, in reality if two lightsabers collide nothing would happen, they would go straight through each other.