A Conversation for Physics
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Bob The Frog Started conversation Nov 3, 1999
Now, I don't know if this is the right forum for this, but I have a question for those more knowledgeable than I: It's night time, and a single bulb illuminates my room. When I turn off the bulb, where does the light GO? I understand that it goes pretty damn quick, but where? If we extrapolated my room to be a sealed box with the interior coated with mirrors, would it change the answer?
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Rob_n_Sarah Posted Nov 9, 1999
OK, here goes. If we think of your room as a sealed box, coated with mirrors the light would ping around, from suface to surface. Each time it is reflected though a little bit would be absorbed by the mirror. This means the light becomes less and less until it is a single photon, which is then abosorbed and there is no light left.
In a normal room the amount that is absorbed each time is much greater than a mirror and so the light would dissapear more quickly.
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