Light travels at its maximum speed in a vacuum. But when it enters a medium such as glass, air, water, etc. it slows down. What is actually happening to the photons as they pass through the medium? Are they being absorbed by the atoms, exciting the electrons and after some time somehow being re-emitted in the same direction? Are they travelling at vacuum speed between atoms?
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3Possible duplicate of What is the mechanism behind the slowdown of light/photons in a transparent medium? – John Rennie Jul 15 '17 at 19:53
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See also: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/235568/, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/243967/, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/161289/, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/11820/ and probably many others – Kyle Kanos Jul 15 '17 at 19:55