Thanks Merl. And thanks for not calling out my erroneous math 61Km/s = 61,000 m/s, not 610,000 as I wrote. No matter. And feel free to continue on with yourt original line if any of this gets too boring or juvenile for you...
Energy is not like a physical wave - therefore the same rules do not apply.
Yes, I'm still *stuck* in my Period/Wavelength analogy - I'm thinking of the photon as 'riding' that graphical wave, ala a roller coaster, and if the wave slows, the photon still has to 'ride' the same amount of track, ergo amplitude should go up, i.e."conservation' of
something. My problem, not yours...
Majestron:
I am also confused by the statement that Merl makes that potential energy adds heat. How can something that is potential add something that is not yet manifested?
Majestron, Merl said "heaft," not "heat." My interpetation is that the faster the initial wave was travelling, and the faster it is brought to a halt, the more "mass" will be added to the resultant sytem?? No, that can't be right...the amount of energy expended to stop it has to be fixed, regardless the time interval (You can use a little energy over a 'long' time, or a lot of energy over a 'short' time). I think that makes sense, otherwise you'd be in a situation where you could "create" mass M, or 1/2M, or 2M...that can't be (awaiting Merl's arrival to tell me I'm once again bonkers).
Merl said:
Interestingly enough, the amount of energy expended into the "stopping process" figures into the weight as well. Potential energy adds heaft you know!
Does this in any way shed 'light' on why the reconstructed wave was not an exact copy of the original - it was 'weaker' because you
can't get 100% back out? Then again, the stopped system has this extra potential (above and beyond the original sodium atoms + the original stopped wave). And then that was excited with a second laser (I assume adding more energy)...What was left over in the sodium atoms that wasn't there in the beginning?
Majestron:
A given form of organized energy does not proceed in waves but in direct lines.
That's the part I'm having trouble conceptualizing, even though I fully? understand and "know" it. Like in an ocean wave, the wave is moving, but the individual water molecules are mostly just rising and falling. SO, are photons rising and falling, travelling in a straigh line, or both? They're obviously moving, slapping me in the retina, since I can read the drivel I type.
