Article View: sci.misc
Article #730Re: differences between sound and light waves?
From: Carl Witthoft
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1988 20:36
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1988 20:36
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In article <5537@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> jeric@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (J. Eric Grove) writes:
>In article <3129@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> jfc@athena.mit.edu (John F Carr) writes:
>>The blue glow is the result of massive (i.e., not massless)
>>particles losing energy as they slow to the speed of light in water.
>Note that this statement is misleading. Charged particles lose about 3 orders
>of magnitude more energy in ionizing the medium they are traversing than in
>generating Cerenkov radiation. Typical ionization energy losses for
> J. Eric Grove
What's going on here? I thought that the whole point of
Cerenkov radiation was that it is a "bow wave" of light given off
by a particle moving faster than the speed of photons in the present
medium. The radiation is somewhat like a sonic boom.
--
Alix's Dad ( Carl Witthoft @ Adaptive Optics Associates)
{ima,harvard}!bbn!aoa!carl
54 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,MA 02140 617-864-0201
"People unclear on the concept: 'Nah, I don't want to windsurf,
I wanna do more C-programming.' "
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bbn!aoa!carl From: carl@aoa.UUCP (Carl Witthoft) Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.physics Subject: Re: differences between sound and light waves? Message-ID: <98@aoa.UUCP> Date: 24 Feb 88 20:36:43 GMT References: <5537@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Reply-To: carl@aoa.UUCP (Carl Witthoft) Organization: Adaptive Optics Assoc., Cambridge, Mass. USA Lines: 20