I know this is going to sound absurd but I will keep with in character an post it anyway because I don't happen to think it is absurd. We know that when a sound is emitted from a source that it (a wave) travels through our atmosphere at a certain speed. It is also well known that wind will disturb this pattern of waves by disturbing the atmosphere it travels though. When light travels though our atmosphere why doesn't it suffer the same distortions due to wind speeds. A photon traveling through a windy environment such as a cyclone 200 kph winds will still travel a straight path. Why is this so? Intuitvely one would think that some sort of deviation in it's path would be necessary and easilly observed I would think. Care to discuss? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Does the photon run into anything that can stop it? No, it doesnt, therefore, it doesnt interact with the air, therefore does not drift. think of glass, which is transparent to light of certain frequencies, it lets soem throguh without hindrance, others interact with the atoms inthe glass and are reflected or absorbed. It depends on the frequency I think. I think thats about right, though I'm no physicist.
The atmosphere does distort light though. When you see a star twinkling, or scintillating, it is the ligth path changing due to pressure variations in the air. Look up a thing called Optical Path. Saying that, light does not need a medium, like air, to travel through so a wind will not affect the optical path directly. Different materials and densities do though.
But what about photon interactions through a midium? Photons are absorbrd & re-emitted by exiciting electrons--so refraction & reflection takes place. Photons can travel with or without any medium, whereas mechnical waves can only travel through any medium & having bigger wavelength. So I think when photons are absorbded by particles in air than some of its path can be deviated--but it is instant happening.
The thing that puzzles me and the reason for this question, is that if we have photons coming in and the wind is blowing 100 kmph transversly then if the photons are interacting with the medium you would see in some measurable quantity the distortion as the photon excited air molecules move transversly at 100 or more kmph. Therefore seeing a blurry image in the middle of a storm. Or at the Artic where the winds are howling past all the time. But as it is we see perfect clarity reagardless of wind speed. You might suggest that the wind speed is insufficient but the compounding effect of say 80kms of transversing wind media [depth of field of line of sight] would compound the distortion considerably I would think.
light travels at 2.997 925 x 10<sup>8</sup> metres per second, the atmosphere is, say ~100 000 metres thick, so light is not 'in' the atmosphere for very long even if it was affected by windspeed, which it isn't.
QQ, if you really are interested in this issue, check the Internet for the key word "Fiseau". You will see a lot materials on problem of light propagated in the moving media.
Look through a star or planet through a moderately high-power telescope. Or, have a look at this short clip of Jupiter. (I haven't actually seen this clip yet... it needs the DivX 5.0 codec, which I'm currently downloading).