what is light made of?

Answer 1

Light is the motion of energy from one point to another point.

Energy is not a material to be made of.

It is understood that something which interacts with material and the ways in which it interacts with matter are the laws of Physics.

When it interacts with matter it gives energy to the material in a quantised way i.e, not in a continuous but discrete amount. This bundle of energy (not matter) is named as photon.

Photon has no mass but is full of energy. It behaves lIKE matter but it is not matter.

Answer 2

First, let me say that SCIENTISTS DO NOT KNOW exactly what light is made of. Sounds strange, doesn't it? I mean, they know the surface characteristics, but the terms they use stop having real definitions at a certain point.

Newton asked that same question. So did Einstein. Both men came up with brilliant and useful theories on how to use light and how to predict the behavior of light, but neither plumbed the depths of what light exactly is.

OK, here's the standard explanation: Light is made of tiny energy particles that not only travel along a waveform path, but in some mysterious way these energy particles ARE waves.

The energy particles are called PHOTONS. They travel at approximately 186,000 miles per SECOND, which is as fast as anything CAN travel. Nothing can go faster than light (so most theoreticians think).

Yes, it's confusing. It's confusing to everyone, even people who study this stuff their whole lives.

Another cool thing about photons is that they have no mass. Meaning, they are pure energy and are not made of anything material. And, since they travel at the speed of light, Einstein figured out that time stands still for photons. Meaning, photons don't experience the passage of time because time slows down for an object as it approaches the speed of light.

BTW, electrons, which are the particles that carry electricity, have mass and travel much slower than light. That's why fiber optic cables (which carry light waves) are faster and more efficient over long distances than copper wires (which carry electrons).

But what makes up a photon? What is energy EXACTLY? Where did all the energy in the Big Bang come from? If you answer these questions in detail and in testable scientific terms, I guarantee you will be famous and your face will be in all our science textbooks from here on.

Answer 3

Light is made of photons.....what is a photon?

Well a photon is a itty bitty particle. But it's also a wave. Photons are said to have "wave particle duality". Basically this means it has properties of both a particle, and a wave.

Like a particle, a photon is "discrete", meaning it comes in packets. If we consider a baseball a particle, the whole baseball is one packet. Like a particle a photon has momentum. But, when a photon goes through something such as a hole, or encounters an object in it's path, it acts like a wave.

For example, you may have seen water spew out of a hole and noticed, it spreads out in a circular type pattern. Light does the same thing. This is called diffraction.

Now photons have different wavelengths and thus different frequencies, and thus different levels of energy. In the visible portion of the spectrum we interpret this as different colors.

But photons are on the electromanetic spectrum, which is continueous. Radio waves are types of photons too. In fact so are microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays, and the likes.

Answer 4

Light is made of small particles called photons.

Answer 5

Photons

Answer 6

From a non-quantum theory point of view, light is an electromagnetic wave, the same kind of wave as radio and television, microwaves, infra-red light, (visible light), ultra-violet light, x-rays, gamma rays.

The waves are the interaction of time-varying electric and magnetic fields as predicted by Maxwell's equations.

Answer 7

Photons. Photons behave both as particles and as wave packets of energy. If your looking for particles you find particles. If your looking for wave packets you find wave packets. This is what is called the dual nature of light, or the duality of light.

Answer 8

photons --called "particles of energy" because the physicists still can't figure out how to measure the mass of something so small and fast moving...

To my knowledge, the photon is far and away the stablest of the subatomic particles smaller than an electron...

Answer 9

light is a form of energy.it cannot b made up of something.photon is just the unit of measuring light energy.

Answer 10

when we give energy to a matter , electrons are excited , they attain energy and jump up to upper orbital. but this state is unstable and they return to original state. they give up their energy and this is light.