Compton Effect

Compton Effect: Basics and Significance

I read up on the Compton Effect (about 3 years ago).

The significance of the Compton Effect was that it proved, experimentally, that light was fundamentally a particle (photon or light-quanta) as Einstein had suggested.

 

In brief, the “Compton Effect” treats both light and electrons as particles – both are fundamentally particles. When these two particles hit each other, the effect is like two billiard balls colliding. Think of one billiard ball being sent by a cue into another stationary billiard ball. This is what Compton did when he sent one photon into an electron.

 

With the billiard balls, the energy is transferred: the stationary billiard ball gains some energy and recoils backward, while the incoming billiard ball loses some energy, and slows down. It will also bounce off at an angle.

 

The same thing occurs when Compton fired his photons into the electrons. Like the billiard balls, the photon transferred energy to the electron. The photon bounced back, with less energy. The electron now has more energy.

 

This is the “Compton Effect”, and it proved that light is primarily a particle.

 

 

The importance of the Compton Effect was that it provided “irrefutable evidence for the existence of light quanta (photons), which until then many had dismissed as science fiction”. (From the book “Quantum” by Manjit Kumar).

 

In other words, while Einstein proposed the concept of “light-quanta”, it was Compton who provided experimental proof.

“The obvious conclusion would be that X-rays, and all light, consist of discrete units, proceeding in definite directions, each unit possessing energy value and corresponding momentum.” - Compton

Why is this important to me? I had been studying photons in detail (before I read about the Compton Effect). I had already been coming up with many solutions for the physical properties of photons, and the ways electromagnetic energy behaved. Reading about the Compton Effect confirmed for me that my instincts were correct.

 

Also, think about what this means: The Compton Effect proves that electromagnetic energy is first and foremost a particle. This is what I had come to believe. Reading about the Compton Effect gives me additional confirmation.

This is additionally important regarding all other aspects of Electromagnetic Energy I have discovered, including why light has particle-wave duality.

 

Compton Effect also Proves the Electron is a Particle

Here is something else: the electron is also fundamentally a particle. Many scientists in the last 50 years or so think the electron is some type of energy wave. But I believe it is fundamentally a particle. (I also have detailed illustrations of what it looks like). Again, refer to the “Compton Effect”.


The Compton Effect process occurs because of two particles colliding, not because of two vague energy waves colliding. Thus, reading the Compton Effect from my perspective, this also “proves” to me that the electron is fundamentally a particle, as much as the Effect originally proved that the light is fundamentally a particle. This is equally as significant.  

 

Detailed Understanding of Compton Effect

FYI – I understand the process of energy transfer on a deeper level. In brief, the energy transfer is really a process of energy strings being transferred from one particle to the other. Thus, the billiard ball effect of the “Compton Effect” happens as follows.

 

When the photon hits an electron, the photon can be absorbed or deflected. Additionally, we can have partial absorption, with various versions of deflection.

 

The photon is composed of pulsation energy strings. When the electron absorbs a photon (fully or partially) it is in fact absorbing some of those pulsation strings. Thus, if the photon collides with the electron, yet is only partially absorbed, then the electron is absorbing some of the energy strings, while leaving most of the others with the photon.

 

This is how the electron gains energy.

 

The photon of course has lower energy. The photon has lost some of the energy strings to the electron. And specifically, the energy strings lost are from the pulsation strings. Thus, the photon – with less pulsation energy - now pulsates at a lower frequency.

 

This is a brief description…of a more detailed understanding…of the Compton Effect.

 

For more details, please read any of my books on Electromagnetic Energy.