In this model, a photon is a quantum wave whose various wave lengths give the entire electro-magnetic spectrum (3.3.1), which is possible if every photon is the same process distributed more or less across its wavelength. Quantum waves are then processing waves that run slower when divided over a longer wave length but don’t reduce in amplitude.
Quantum theory also tells us that quantum waves spread at the speed of light, like ripples on a pool but in three dimensions, which is also possible if each point of the quantum network passes on the processing it receives to its neighbors at the speed of light. Light is then a wave spreading in many directions, not a ray of particles moving in one direction as Newton thought. This explains how one photon can go through two slits at once then interfere with itself, as shown in Young’s experiment.
Why then does light travel forward rather than spreading equally in all directions? Huygen’s Principle explains that light is a wave that spreads because each point is a new wave source, so it moves forward because the wave front starts to spread after the points behind it. The spread at the front of the wave is out of phase with the spread from its rear, so they mostly cancel out. As a result, the spread behind the wave front lessens but the spread forward doesn’t, so the wave moves forward. Newton’s particle theory of light is simpler but Huygen’s theory is better because light then moves as water waves do. Both water and light waves move forward, despite each point spreading equally in all directions, because the spreads behind the wave front cancel out but those going forward don’t. Light as a processing wave on a network that passes on what it does in all directions supports Huygens waves rather than Newton’s particles.
Distributing a process runs it slower but what does spreading it do? Gauss noted that when a pebble drops in a pool, its energy spreads in ripples of decreasing strength because the flux per ripple is constant, but for friction. As shown in Figure 3.12, each ripple spreads the same energy over a larger circle, so it decreases proportionally. Applying this principle to a photon polarized in one direction means it does the same, so spreading light weakens it, while distributing it reduces its frequency. And while a water ripple loses energy as it spreads due to friction, and so fades away, quantum ripples spread without friction until they restart anew in a physical event. In conclusion, distributing a quantum wave reduces its frequency but doesn’t weaken it, while spreading on a network weakens it but doesn’t alter its frequency.
Note that quantum waves spreading in three dimensions, in an expanding sphere, will reduce as an inverse square of distance. Chapter 5 uses Gauss’s principle to deduce the inverse square laws of electricity, magnetism and gravity, to replace all the fields of physics with one quantum field. The next module now explores how processing can spread on a network.