Light carries momentum as well as energy, so when it bounces off a mirror the mirror feels a force. This bit of physics is the basis for solar sails, a scheme of spacecraft propulsion. If humans ever make it beyond our solar system, they may be propelled by a solar sail. The Planetary Society is building one.
Lectures this week on Chapter 34, Maxwell's Equations, EM radiation, and light.
Chapter 35, (optics) and Chapter 37, Interference and Diffraction
Home page from weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
I welcome your comments on the class and this website. Send them to Steven.Pollock@colorado.edu
(Many thanks to John Price for the original construction of this page!)