From: r_delaney2001@yahoo.com   
      
   I attended a seminar on lasers recently,   
   discussing new ideas for using them as pumps   
   for electron beam acceleration.  He referred   
   to the photons being in phase in a laser, a   
   key component of the operation.   
      
   I don't get this.  Classical waves, in   
   electromagnetism, consist of phase, which   
   explains interference.  OK.  But the photon   
   (particle) model is uusually used to explain   
   iteraction with matter, dicrete bundles of   
   energy.  But particles don't have phase.  So   
   if we visualize a flow of photons down a   
   waveguide, like a rain of bullets, where does   
   phase fit in?   
      
   What does it mean, phsyically, to talk about   
   a photon's phase?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)