system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Can new photons be created by things like phone screens and flashlights or do they somehow take photons from the rest of the universe. Or, as I suspect, do I have a very flawed understanding of how light, photons, and phone screens work?
gpt
The total number of photons in the universe is not fixed.  New photons can be created, and existing photons can be absorbed. A flashlight or phone screen makes photons; it does not take them from elsewhere.