If the supposed evasive photon is assumed as a massless particle ,than what kind of substance is it?

Question

Perhaps massless means it does not exist as a mass? I try so hard to make sense out of it. Its soo confusing and I dont get straight answers out of teachers. Is my question logical or imaginative.?

It was Henri Point Carre that came up with E= MC^2. and he never mentioned massless energy.
Einstein used that equation in his relativity theory.

Answer 1

Very good question it is.
but
Photon is pure energy is it not?

Answer 2

Many have puzzeled about the nature of mass and energy. Einstein summed it up in a nutshell with his equation:

E = Mc2 (Energy = Mass times the square of the speed of light c).

This means that mass can be converted to energy and vice versa. When uranium is split into two pieces (fission) the weight of the two pieces is very slightly less than the the original uranium atom. This is called a "mass discrepancy" and is thought of as the "glue" that held the atom together. The pieces require less glue and that tiny amount of mass is converted to energy (per Einstein's equation). Because the mass is multiplied by the speed of light squared (a very large number!) the glue provides far more energy than from a chemical reaction such as burning coal.

The energy appears either in the form of heat (photons) or motion of flying pieces. When the flying pieces hit other atoms, they generate heat. That is how a nuclear reactor provides energy to heat steam.

Photons are extremely small but if you hold out your hand to the sun's radiation you can feel their heat as billions of them warm your skin. The photons actually enter the atoms of your skin and are taken up by the electrons which are knocked into higher (more energetic) orbits about their atoms. When the electrons return to rest orbits, they give up photons that carry the energy to other electrons. The electrons are pure mass and the photons are pure energy. It is kind of like a car is pure mass and its speed (or position at the top of a hill) is pure energy. A car and its energy are not the same "substance," right? Hope that helps a little.

Answer 3

A photon is a particle of light carrying energy.
But light can also be thought of as an electromagnetic wave, exhibiting all the properties of a wave (wavelength, frequency, amplitude, interference, ...).
The electromagnetic wave carries energy energy which is divided into discrete packets called photons. Both the wave and the photon are massless.


EDIT:
The "m" in E = mc^2 refers to the rest mass of the object in question. A photon is never at rest and has zero rest mass....all of its energy comes from the fact that is is an electromagnetic wave.

If we add the momentum term back into the E = mc^2 equation to make it look like this,
E = mc^2 + pc
for a massless particle (like a photon), its energy is all in momentum,
E = pc
from this, we find that light has momentum, but no mass.