Does interference of light follows first law of thermodynamics?
If yes then where does light vanishes in minimum interference pattern?
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$\begingroup$ Hello and welcome to Physics SE. Feel free to look around, and take the tour (under 'help' on the top menu). Could you please explain more clearly the contradiction that you see between the first law of thermodynamics and wave interference patterns? As your question stands, it is not clear. $\endgroup$– Jon CusterCommented Aug 25, 2015 at 14:49
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$\begingroup$ I mean conservation of energy. First law describes about conservation of energy of energy, doesn't it? $\endgroup$– Sulav SigdelCommented Aug 26, 2015 at 4:24
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1 Answer
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Light doesn't "vanish" - it "finds another way".
When you have a thin bubble you see interference fringes in the reflection - when the bubble gets sufficiently thin, the reflection disappears completely. This means that the light was transmitted.
In general, if you have an interference pattern, for every minimum (fewer photons) there is a corresponding maximum (more photons) leaving the total energy unchanged.
The first law holds. If you can think of a situation where it does not, please describe it in more detail.
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$\begingroup$ it means photons that needed to hit minima add up to maxima? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 26, 2015 at 4:23
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