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Hi! If one was to bounce a laser beam, or even individual electrons off of two or more mirrors (sort of like a light clock) would the particles in the beam of light or the electrons ever slow down and stop? (assume the mechanism is in a vacuum) Or would they just continue bouncing forever? Thanks for your help!
Question Date: 2010-04-15
Answer 1:

Each time you bounce something off of a mirror it loses some energy into the mirror, which I think answers your question. Electrons WOULD eventually slow down and stop. Photons would not - but what would happen with the photons is that the wavelength of the photons would keep getting longer with every bounce; until the photons had lost so much energy that they were too weak to detect.



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