photons and reflection

RichD · 2009-11-28T00:24:07+00:00

According to the wave theory of light, angle ofincidence equals angle of reflection. No problem,in theory or fact.However, per QM, light falls as a 'rain' of photons.What happens then? As I understand it (big qualifierthere), the photons are absorbed by surface atoms.Electrons jump to higher energy orbitals, then fallback to ground state, emitting photon(s) of itscharacteristic spectrum. Simple....This raises several questions, regarding geometry...the aforementioned angles are defined relativeto a surface normal. But the surface is not trulycontinuous, it's atomic and chunky. How does anatom know where the 'normal' is? How does itknow which direction to fire its photons, after atime delay? Does it have some sort of 'lightmomentum' memory?I never studied quantum field theory, maybe it'sexplained there...--Rich