> in non-polarized light, the "amplitude" of the light wave points in all directions
The average is all directions. Each individual photon has just one direction. But photons are not like regular objects, if you send polarized light through a polarizer that is tilted 45 degrees relative to them you don't block the light entirely like you would expect, instead half the light gets through. I guess you could interpret this as each photon having a 50/50 chance of making it though.
> The amplitude of a light wave doesn't literally mean something is oscillating up and down, right??
Yes, it does mean that. The "something" is an electric and magnetic field. Does that count as a something?
Remember that a moving electric field induces magnetism, and a moving magnet induces an electric field. So the two fields essentially induce each other, that's why light can never stop moving, or even change speed - the fields would no longer induce anything.
> The amplitude is just the light's intensity.
No. The amplitude never changes. Intensity is the number of photons. A single photon doesn't really have an amplitude that way you would think.
The average is all directions. Each individual photon has just one direction. But photons are not like regular objects, if you send polarized light through a polarizer that is tilted 45 degrees relative to them you don't block the light entirely like you would expect, instead half the light gets through. I guess you could interpret this as each photon having a 50/50 chance of making it though.
> The amplitude of a light wave doesn't literally mean something is oscillating up and down, right??
Yes, it does mean that. The "something" is an electric and magnetic field. Does that count as a something?
Remember that a moving electric field induces magnetism, and a moving magnet induces an electric field. So the two fields essentially induce each other, that's why light can never stop moving, or even change speed - the fields would no longer induce anything.
> The amplitude is just the light's intensity.
No. The amplitude never changes. Intensity is the number of photons. A single photon doesn't really have an amplitude that way you would think.