Emission, propagation, and reflection of light as mechanical phenomena: General considerations

Abstract

The emission, propagation, and reflection of light as mechanical phenomena are based on the behavior of balls, at the limit when their mass is zero, emitted by a balls source and reflected by a rigid wall in an elastic collision. Light as a wave or particle is a massless entity. Therefore, applying the kinematics behavior of the massless balls to light is natural. Consequently, the kinematics of light depends on its kinetics of electromagnetic nature and its kinematics of mechanical nature in interactions with the matter as emission and reflection. By applying the emission, propagation, and reflection of light as mechanical phenomena in a vacuum of the frame at absolute rest, this study derives the velocities of a wavefront of light reflected by a fixed and moving mirror when the light comes from a fixed and moving source. The derived velocities apply to the modified Michelson interferometer, employed independently by Tomaschek and Miller in their experiments.