This sounds like a very smart energy efficient flashlight to me, It won't emit photons if it knows there's nothing to illuminate.
Indeed, and we know the universe is a very smart place, or at least weird.
This sounds like a very smart energy efficient flashlight to me, It won't emit photons if it knows there's nothing to illuminate.
Interesting. I can't think of how it could do that without using photons.
How do we know that a photon doesn't only appear as a photon, so to speak, before it interacts with an observer (or any other form of receiver of the energy/information)?
How do we know that?
"Nonsense. You're saying that if you don't see something, it doesn't exist."
Not exactly. But if you are affected in no way, shape or form by an event, either directly or indirectly, then yes, it doesn't exist until you can measure it and draw data/information from it. Even if it does exist, it may as well not exist, at least until it affects you.
Me neither. Perhaps it is already connected in some way prior to releasing energy. Could that be possible? Spooky action at a distance and all that.
Sonar. I think both technologies exist...Interesting. I can't think of how it could do that without using photons.
The black hole absorbs it. That's what they do!"The energy does not leave the black hole and the battery depletes."
Where does the energy go then? What absorbs it? it's facing outwards.
The black hole absorbs it. That's what they do!
"But this is as pointless an argument as that of Bishop Berkeley."
...and almost as pointless as the Universe.
But it's at the edge facing outwards, perpendicular.
It starts out pointed away from the center, but the extreme gravity warps the geodesic the light follows, and it just goes round and round.It can't escape the black hole and it doesn't get bent along a parabolic path or anything like that because it is perpendicular to the centre.
It doesn't have to get absorbed by anything to conserve energy, it just keeps traveling round and round.Where does it get absorbed once it's left the flashlight in order to satisfy conservation?
It curves around and goes back toward the center.But it's at the edge facing outwards, perpendicular.
What does a parabola with zero width look like?But I want to know where the light goes to. Where does it get absorbed once it's left the flashlight in order to satisfy conservation? It can't escape the black hole and it doesn't get bent along a parabolic path or anything like that because it is perpendicular to the centre. So if the battery depletes, where does the light energy end up?
In the photons zipping round and round.So if the battery depletes, where does the light energy end up?