From: into@oblivion.nothing.com   
      
   RichD  wrote in news:7df82a17-af83-438f-9afa-   
   f7048f6a53fa@googlegroups.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?   
      
   Funny thing about quantum physics....   
      
   It's both.   
      
   Look up "wave-particle duality".   
      
   You might say that there are no particles, there are no   
   waves. Maybe they're 'wavicles'? Everything has properties   
   of both.   
      
   Interferometers have been made using massive particles,   
   including large molecules such as buckyballs.   
      
   Read Richard Feynman's book "QED". Very accessible to the   
   layman.   
      
   Brian   
   --   
   http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism   
   Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?   
      
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