If Photons are particles of light, then why is their energy described in terms of frequency?

Question

If you are to model Light in terms of waves, then, sure it will have its wavelength and frequency, but if u were to model it in terms of particles, then as we know, massless particles do not have wavelengths/frequencies (no De broglie wavelength because there is no mass involved). So how come when finding the enerygy of a particular photon, the equation that we use involves frequency of light?

Answer 1

Photons are evil.

Remember how scientists were able to slow down light to 17m/s? If photons were massless, they wouldn't slow down becasue they wouldn't need energy to move in the first place can any amount of energy would propel them at the speed of light.

So does it mean that photons have very little mass? If so, wouldn't they increase in mass when travelling at the speed of light when energy is converted into mass?

Therefore, photons may have other properties no apparent in the 4 dimensions we live in and have other undiscovered properties in other dimensions.

Photons are indeed evil...

Answer 2

Photons display the same wave-particle duality as subatomic particles, behaving as waves when propagating through space, and as particles when interacting with matter. Einstein, in 1905, explained how the energy of the photon was related to wavelength. We use wavelength because is the easiest way to physically characterize light. Remember that the wave and the photon are not different things, just different interactions with the same thing. Therefore, there is no discrepancy in using the properties of the wave to characterize the photon.

The photon has no mass, but it does have momentum, so the DeBroglie equation still applies.

Answer 3

A Photon is both a particle (like a bb) and at the same time it displays wavelike properties. It all depends what experiment one is using and now there are experiments that show both the particle and wavelike states of a photon simultaneously. I don't understand why you asked this question for you display a knowledge of physics deep enough to understand the answer. You dropped the name De broglie like he was a friend of the family. Is this some kind a test? Shucks I like tests!

Answer 4

I'm seeing that when a photon strikes a surface it turns in to glue--then in to a glue ball.All fringe would be glue ball.You are not actually measuring the frequency of a photon.All photons are sinusoidal and travel in a sinusoidal wave font.All sine waves are proof of axial rotation.Photons,in the node,are circles.You would have to measure the frequency of that spinning circle to determine the frequency of a photon.

Answer 5

We can generalize about photons acting as a wave and use that to deduce information about a single photon.
This is exactly what we did to find out about water molecules. First we started with the macroscopic... water waves and drops, and then worked our way down to the atomic level.

Answer 6

Photons are odd little creatures. They behave both like mass-less energy and like a particle with mass.

Answer 7

It has been accepted that light shows dual nature. This means that they act as both particles ( justified by black body radiation and photoelectric effect) and electromagnetic effect ( justified by diffraction and interference). Referring to wave nature we can talk about their frequency.