John Zinni wrote:
"Ralph Hertle" wrote in message
...

Actually, the Lord Rayleigh photon-hydrogen experiment used the term,
"inelastic", to describe one effect in the process in which the energy
level of the photon is reduced. Another effect, that I believe he didn't
identify, is that the energy of the photon that is lost may have been
combined into the hydrogen atom, or more specifically into the electron
of the atom (that is case A). Alternatively, the energy fraction may
have been emitted in some other sub-atomic form (and, that is case B),
and that form may be a fractional photon. Scientist will discover the
actual truth just as soon as the Biblical Creationist idea is banned
from rational and factual science.


Give us a reference Ralph. Any reference at all ...



John:

That is a valid question.

Two or more years ago I downloaded a synopsis of that experiment, and I
cannot find it again on the internet.

I've searched Google.com, with the keywords,

"Lord Rayleigh" +photon +hydrogen +experiment,

and again I couldn't find the documentation of the experiment.


Numerous sources are listed at:

http://www.geometry.net/nobel/raylei...iam_strutt.php .


The only reference I could find was at:

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The following quotation is from the presentation at the above mentioned
site:

"
Until now we have discussed the absorption or the emission of a photon,
when the photon?s energy corresponds to the energy difference of two
molecular levels. But when a photon collides with a molecule other
processes may occur ? the photon may be scattered and changes its
direction of motion. If the photon?s energy is conserved (no change of
frequency) the process is termed Rayleigh scattering (after John William
Strutt Baron Rayleigh (1842-1919)). However, the molecule during the
interaction may capture some of the photon?s energy, or some may be
transferred to the photon. Consequently, due to this inelastic
collision, the photon emerges with a different energy ?
"


The "Rayleigh scattering" experiments and documentation are the general
area to investigate. The complete documentation would be of interest.

The elastic back-scatter experiments are not as interesting as the
photon-hydrogen inelastic collision experiments referred to above
regarding photon energy levels.

Ralph Hertle