Compton Scattering (Photon Billiards)
Fire an X-ray or gamma photon at an electron and watch it bounce off with less energy — the wavelength shift depends only on the angle, which is the evidence that light comes in particles.
Requires Launch
What you can adjust
- Incident photon energy
- 8.05 – 1250 keV
- Scattering angle (theta)
- 0 – 180 °
- Animation duration
- 1 – 4 s
The X-ray or gamma photon's energy before it hits the electron. A higher-energy photon hands a bigger fraction of its energy to the electron for the same scattering angle.
The angle the photon comes off at, measured from its original direction. 0 degrees means it barely deflects at all (no energy loss); 180 degrees is a dead-on backscatter (the biggest possible energy loss).
How long the clip runs — the photon travels in, then the scattered photon and recoil electron fly apart.