where does light from a torch go?

Do you recognize that your claim that a photon doesn't exist until detected is DEMONSTRATED FALSE by experiments that have already been done?[/b]

Experiments seem to suggest that waves travel along multiple paths and interfere where undisturbed. Where the observer (or final path interaction) occurs it appears that the waves collapse and become particle-like. I have never seen an experiment that DIRECTLY observes waves, only the result of the final interaction. Even an ocilloscope captures the wave and translates the energy/information to another form before being translated to a form we can interpret easily.
 
It appears that waves are predetermined connection paths in which information can travel from source to observer. Where there is no observer, there could be no transfer of energy in any case.

You're not getting this are you!
 
It appears that waves are predetermined connection paths in which information can travel from source to observer. Where there is no observer, there could be no transfer of energy in any case.

You're not getting this are you!
You're not making much sense. You seem to have no concept of cause and effect. That there is no transfer of energy from one thing to another does not mean the energy doesn't exist.
 
That there is no transfer of energy from one thing to another does not mean the energy doesn't exist.

Quantum mechanics says that something doesn't exist until you look at it, doesn't it?
 
Im not trolling...

Experiments seem to suggest that waves travel along multiple paths and interfere where undisturbed. Where the observer (or final path interaction) occurs it appears that the waves collapse and become particle-like. I have never seen an experiment that DIRECTLY observes waves, only the result of the final interaction. Even an ocilloscope captures the wave and translates the energy/information to another form before being translated to a form we can interpret easily.
You didn't answer the question. You are talking about a completely different issue than before.

Edit: actually, I've allowed you to pull me away from the original point as well. I'll rephrase:
Do you understant that the energy emission is detectable - and that this has been demonstrated - even if the photon is never detected?
 
Quantum mechanics says that something doesn't exist until you look at it, doesn't it?

No, that's not what it says. It says that there are indeterminate paired states (i.e. position and momentum), which are not resolved until a measurement is made.
 
No, that's not what it says. It says that there are indeterminate paired states (i.e. position and momentum), which are not resolved until a measurement is made.

Same difference.
 
Quantum mechanics says that something doesn't exist until you look at it, doesn't it?

Well no! Though over simplified it would be more like you cannot know specific details until after observation.., and the act of observation can affect those details.

Polarizing filters directly detect waves.

Are you sure? They interact with the wave, but the result of that interaction can only be determined after the interaction. And yes, we can asume from past experience what that result will be before we measure/detect it. So polarizing filters interact directly with waves, but that does not in itself constitute detection.
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Everyone here it seems.., is being run down a rabbit hole by dav57. This is not and never began as a discussion of any involved science. It is at best a conceptual and/or phylosophical debate, centered on a single interpretation of quantum theory. Dav57 is arguing that a theoretical interpretation of QM is reality.., when even those who deal with that particular interpretation daily, know it is a theoretical construct.

It is almost like arguing whether you are blind if you are standing in the dark!
 
No i'm afraid I'm unsure. Can you show me please.

Dav57, have you ever smashed you finger or a thumb.., with a hammer or in a closing door?.. Or any similar event?

Having experienced it once, do you avoid repeating the experience?

If so how is that different than what Russ suggests?
 
Well no! Though over simplified it would be more like you cannot know specific details until after observation.., and the act of observation can affect those details.

That'll do for me.


Are you sure? They interact with the wave, but the result of that interaction can only be determined after the interaction. And yes, we can asume from past experience what that result will be before we measure/detect it. So polarizing filters interact directly with waves, but that does not in itself constitute detection.

They only interact in that they either block or let through. Simple.
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Everyone here it seems.., is being run down a rabbit hole by dav57. This is not and never began as a discussion of any involved science. It is at best a conceptual and/or phylosophical debate, centered on a single interpretation of quantum theory. Dav57 is arguing that a theoretical interpretation of QM is reality.., when even those who deal with that particular interpretation daily, know it is a theoretical construct.

It is almost like arguing whether you are blind if you are standing in the dark!

Haha, you're funny. Not to worry, my rabbit hole leads to an Easter break soon, so you will get a break from me!
 
No they don't. They block some and allow others to pass.
So by saying they allow others (undetected) to pass, you're saying that the undetected waves exist, ever though they're undetected.
 
No i'm afraid I'm unsure. Can you show me please.
Did you understand from our previous exchange:
"You know *something* was emitted because you can measure the emission and energy loss. So what do you think happens when a flashlight battery discharges and you aren't watching the light?"

I agree, it goes somewhere, but only if there is something to connect to which can receive the energy transfer. if the light can't physically transfer energy to something else, I'm querying whether it would actually leave the source in the first place.
....that this is done all the time? A couple of examples were given:
-Radio stations.
-Lasers pointed into space.

Another good one: The Aricebo radio telescope message into space.

In all of these examples, the energy emitted is measured and then nothing ever receives the majority of the emitted photons.

Another way to look at it: the emission and absorption are symmetrical but separate events. You know the photon was emitted exactly the same way you know it was absorbed: by measuring the energy at emission and absorption. Neither of these depends on the other.

You don't need to be guessing and speculating about things that have already been demonstrated. You just need to listen, learn and accept them.
 
So by saying they allow others (undetected) to pass, you're saying that the undetected waves exist, ever though they're undetected.

Only if they have a future observer whereby information is able to pass through the the polorising plate.
 
"In all of these examples, the energy emitted is measured and then nothing ever receives the majority of the emitted photons. "

I think the photons do end up somewhere in our closed universe.
 
If my idea is correct i.e. that waves can't be directly detected and instead only the final, particle-like interaction with the observer or receiver can be detected, then there would be no possible way to detect any property of the actual wave, including the relative speed between observer and wave. The speed would always be a constant based on the rate of direct interactions. I wonder if that fits with empirical evidence.
 
"In all of these examples, the energy emitted is measured and then nothing ever receives the majority of the emitted photons. "

I think the photons do end up somewhere in our closed universe.
Well, sorry, but you are just plain wrong.
 
"No, you are receiving packets of energy onto your photoreceptor cells. They, and the rest of the visual system, take care of the rest."

Once again, it is not the waves that we see at the point of observation.
The point of observation is a cell. It has a photoreceptor. The photoreceptor is an integrator. This is where you are wrong--there is no such thing as quantum sensation.

It is the conversion process at the point of observation from wave (which carries the energy) to a discreet "packet of energy" which is then "particle-like".
No, you're wrong about that. It's not particle-like. It's energy-like. You are confusing waves, which are a bulk phenomena, with wavelets, which are quanta. The point of observation is a photoreceptor, which responds to waves, not quanta.


I don't think we can "see" waves;
Yes we can see waves, because that's how a photoreceptor works.

it is only the interaction process at the point of observation that we can interpret as energy transfer/information.
You are confusing bulk energy transfer with quantum energy transfer. They are not the same. You don't understand how a photoreceptor works.

This is hard to explain.
No it's very easy. Just learn about photoreceptors. The action potential will not fire unless the stimulus is above threshold. One photon by itself will not trigger the action hillock. It takes a bulk of them, an actual wave, to cross threshold. Beyond that the pumping action of the wave must be sustained, or there is no visual perception. You can test this by pulse-modulating a light source. When the pulse becomes too narrow, you will no longer detect the light. The screen you are looking at does this. You only think the solid color of the text is not oscillating. It is. You just can't see it because it's designed to oscillate faster than the rate of visual integration. That rate, by the way, is anything faster than about 20 Hz. (It varies slightly from person to person.) (Or if your text is black the same rule applies to the background color, which you think is not flashing.)
 
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