Do we know if it actually has to *hit* the electron or not? I would think the odds of the essentially massless photon and excessively small electron hitting each other as the photon passes through the electron cloud would be extremely small. Of course, I suppose most things that absorb light, paint chips for example, have to be several million (or some larger order of magnitude) atoms thick for even the thinnest chips.
Does anyone know if any experiments were done to test the odds of a photon being absorbed by a given atom? (presumably the experiment would be done with a photon with proper wavelength to be absorbed by the atom in question)
Or any experimental evidence to support the mechanics of how a photon is absorbed by an electron at all?
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