2

In addition, to get light to other side of the wall, could it be converted to radio waves and then back to light waves?

Edit: My idea was if there was a special material that was painted on both sides of a wall that converted radio waves to light waves and light waves to radio waves would the wall appear invisible? (My thought being that the electromagnetic radiation would travel through the wall since radio waves can travel through walls)

Also, thanks for all the responses!

Chris W
  • 143
  • 1
    Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/6725/ – Kyle Kanos Jul 21 '14 at 01:42
  • 3
    Um...for the question your title, that's what glass (almost) is. I've no idea what you are asking in the body of the post. – ACuriousMind Jul 21 '14 at 01:46
  • 1
    Make sure you understand what you mean by "light" vs "radio" - both are photons, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and both can pass through some walls but not all walls. Maybe some clarification on this point will help. It sounds like you have a specific case in mind; share it with us? – levitopher Jul 21 '14 at 04:31

1 Answers1

1

Are you asking about quantum tunneling? Photons have a probability of passing through a "wall" - that doesn't mean all photons get through. To "see" something, you need some photons to be reflected. This can happen without all photons being either transmitted or reflected.

So the short answer to your question is "yes".

As for the "converted to radio waves" part of your question: if your wall comprises an energy barrier that is almost as tall as the energy of your photon (which is an electromagnetic wave of a certain wavelength) it is in principle possible that the photon exists as a "radio wave" (electromagnetic wave with long but non-virtual wavelength) inside the wall - and that is gets converted back to a photon when it comes out at the other side. Can't think of a specific instance but it is theoretically possible, I believe.

Floris
  • 118,905