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Does electromagnetic waves transfer momentum?

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Meet this guy, an electron sitting lonely (ignoring papa Heisenberg's advice) somewhere with nothing in the life to cheer about - no energy, no momentum, darkness everywhere. read more

Electromagnetic waves carry momentum, proportional to their energy divided by c. This result can be derived easily from relativity, harder from Maxwell's equations, or even as I did once in a quora answer, from Doppler shift. read more

And this momentum is indeed associated with the wave propagation along the x-direction (if we consider a 3d wave equation, we would get a momentum vector, pointing along the direction of motion of the wave packet). read more

Waves carrying momentum is a classical phenomenon (in addition to a Quantum one). I can get the end of a yo-yo to jiggle around if I jiggle the string (i.e. transfer momentum via a wave) - and I can explain it all using Newtonian mechanics. read more

up vote 2 down vote favorite This question is about the rotation of macroscopic objects and looks at the magnetic vector of an electromagnetic wave. read more

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