Question: Fight possesses momentum. This can be demonstrated with a radiometer, shown in the sketch. Metal vanes painted black on one side and white on the

Fight possesses momentum. This can be demonstrated with a radiometer, shown in the sketch. Metal vanes painted black on one side and white on the other are free to rotate around the point of a needle mounted in a vacuum. When light is incident on the black surface, it is absorbed; when light is incident upon the white surface, it is reflected. Upon which surface is the impulse of incident light greater, and which way will the vanes rotate? (They rotate in the opposite direction in the more common radiometers in which air is present in the glass chamber; your instructor may tell you why.)

Fight possesses momentum. This can be demonstrated with a radiometer,

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Impulse is greater for reflection which is in effect bouncing The vanes therefore recoil more fr... View full answer

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