16 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
Inside is perfectly reflective.
Light can reflect, refract, or absorb. It's implicit in the question that there is no absorption, so the light will continue bouncing forever.
But what's really interesting is this: What happens when you accelerate the box?
The light that's moving in the forward direction gets blue-shifted in wavelength to higher energy during the bounce off the back wall, while the light that's moving against the direction gets red shifted to lower energy. The result is there is more pressure on the rear surface and that acts as a resistance to accelerating it. That "resistance" is exactly the mass equivalence of light by E=mc^2 which gives the box the same inertia as any other equal mass.
Comment by ITagEveryone at 06/12/2023 at 21:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is really interesting.
Somewhat related question: do the photons lose velocity when they reflect off the mirror?
Comment by OpenPlex at 06/12/2023 at 19:08 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
there is no absorption, so the light will continue bouncing forever.
But, light is only visible if something absorbs the light or interacts with it, such as an eyeball or a camera that can detect the light, right? So in a room where light is bouncing forever, wouldn't the room be dark until the light is detected, at which point the light would start to diminish? (because the eye or sensor has absorbed whatever light it's seeing)