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gosub100 12 hours ago

I agree that photons cannot be distinguished, but how do you reconcile the following:

- photons travel at the speed of light in a vacuum

- it takes 90k years (or whatever) for a photon to travel from the sun's core to your retina?

Ok, the core of the sun is not a vacuum, quite the opposite, but the path is fraught with being continuously absorbed and emitted. It's not one photon travelling at a few km/hr is it?

And I don't think photons are reflected in hydrogen, although I have no proof. I just thought reflection was done with things like flat surfaces or mirrors.

This is why I said "not the same photon", but I admit I have only YouTube-spectator level knowledge

Jblx2 10 hours ago | parent [-]

>And I don't think photons are reflected in hydrogen

The hydrogen in the sun isn't regular molecular H2. It is a plasma or maybe even has a liquid metallic phase (depending on temperature and pressure).

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=hydrogen+plasma+phase+diagr...