on an atomic scale...

 

what happens when a photon interacts with normal matter?

 

e.g. when light bounces of the wall or anything normal...?

 

on an atomic scale, so what happens to the photon and what happens to the atom which it hits

this has had 14 views and no replies, does no one know, ok, thats highly unlikely, can sum1 answer me!

A lot of stuff can happen. The photon can be

 

Scattered -e.g. The colors we see depends on the wavelength of the scattered photons.

 

Absorbed -Vibrational/rotational energy, excite elecron, etc. (heat)

 

Give rise to pair production (photon materializes into an electron and a positron, high energy only)

 

And probably a bunch of other, more exotic interactions. I think the key words you are looking for is absorbed or scattered.