light from a flashlight?

Question

My son asked this one. I cannot find the answer.
What happens to the light when you turn a flashlight off at night?
My guess was it is still there, but becomes so diluted by bouncing around, it is no longer bright enough for us to see it.

Answer 1

Nothing happens to it unless it is absorbed or reflected or refracted. There are still TV episodes of "I Love Lucy," sailing away from us in space. If you were 56 light years from Earth at this instant, you could watch the original episodes of that show on a TV.

Answer 2

Almost.
1) The wave source of the light stops,
2) The remaining wave either hits objects or goes out endlessly into space
3) The light that hits object is either reflected, refracted, scattered or absorbed
4) The light that goes out into space continues to expand as a wavefront, becomming more and more diffuse
5)The reflected light gets recycled back to step 2) above after changeing direction by 180 degrees
6) The scattered light gets recycled back to step 2) after changing direction at random
7) The refracted light gets recycled back to step 2) after changing direction by aqn amout determined by the interface between the air and the substance it passed through
8) The absorbed light gets changed to heat or electricity (the photoelectric effect)


At the end of a very short time it is either changed into heat, or escapes into outer space, to die the death of the gods (Diffuses out of existance) or both.

This actually happens very quickly since light travels so fast. It all gone almost before a shutter an film can catch it going.

Answer 3

It is likely absorbed by things. That energy then becomes thermal energy (heat) in the things that absorb it. It may then be re-emitted as non-visible waves (infrared) or just stay there being warm.

Answer 4

It is absorbed by objects or scattered. And when absorbed by glow-cathcing fluorescent objecs, it sheds energy.

Answer 5

Yep....that's pretty much it....in a colloquial manner of speaking.

Good job.

:)