I was watching a lecture about QED given by Richard Feynman. Part of
the lecture was about the reflection of light. This is what I think he
said, paraphrased: When shining a light at a reflective surface the
probabability that the light will take the shortest path or the
longest path to a detector, placed anywhere, is equal. However, the
AMPLITUDE of the probability is not equal, but varies. The light
particles with the highest amplitude are the ones we see when the
incident angle and the exit angle are the same, the shortest path. So
I think Feynman said the probablity can be the same but the amplitude
of the probability can be different. Is that correct? If so, can
anyone point me to a web site that explains this in a way a layman can
sort of understand?
Thanks,
Eric