If light has a mass how does it travel through glass?

Question

If light (or its photons) have a mass how does it travel through glass? What effect does the light or its mass have on the medium through which it travels?

Answer 1

If light was a form of sine wave then it should wiggle around the mass with out a problem.
If light is a flux of particle minute masses than they would collide with the atoms of the crystals and get absorbed into the atoms causing them to increase in mass.
However since mass light particles are so small there is plenty of space between the atoms in the cristal to go thru.So some go thru and some get absorbed into the atoms.

Hence mass increase of a mass is not due to how fast a mass is moving but how its atoms absorb the light flux.
This would be the only explanation to the relativistic mass increase in Einstein 's equation. According to the laws of thermodynamics "nothing comes from nothing".

A non crystal material would tend to be more opaque because the atoms are not as ordered as in the crystals ;Hence causing interference to the passage of the light flux

It has been observed that the velocity of light depends on the medium in which it travel. Hence different materials such as water, crystals ,glass exhibit different index of refraction so light travels at different speeds in these materials=Hence its not constant.

If space would have different densities and different Field pressures, than it would make sense to say that the speed of light is variable in the Universes since it would travel in different densities of space -time.
You last part of the question about what effect does light have in the medium of space shows you are thinking beyond Einstein. This is very commendable.However to explain this phenomena requires a very tedious and lenghty explanation. But the effect does exist.

Answer 2

Light or the particles that make it up, photons, do not have mass. You've most likely confused this with the fact that they have momentum.

Not all light passes through glass either. UV (the light that makes your skin tan) does not pass through most kinds of glass. The visible light that passes through glass does so by not being absorbed by the atoms that compose its amorphous structure.

For the materials that light reflects off of there is a transfer of momentum. This is where the idea of solar sails was born.

If light is absorbed by a medium the energy of the photons can damage the molecular structure, destroy it, or (for the reason Einstein received a Nobel prize) induce the photoelectric effect.

Answer 3

Light is both a particle and a wave. Neutrinos are also particles and are thought to have a very slight mass and they travel through you and this Earth of ours without almost ever impacting. In fact a neutrino could travel through 100 light years of lead and only have a 50% chance of hitting something. Glass or any substance is not really solid. The silicon atoms have huge gaps between them (atomically speaking) and even the atoms are comprised of electrons, neutrons and protons which have smaller components yet. A black hole is perhaps the truest solid. Our sun if collapsed and became a black hole (it’s actually too small to do so) it would be the size of a softball. As far as the impact (assuming there is any) light will scatter of course and some of the light is absorbed in the glass and converted to heat.

Answer 4

Photons are very, very, very small. Glass, steel, and you only LOOK solid. If you imagine the standard model of an atom of silicon dioxide (which is basically what glass is), it is mostly empty space. Lot's of room for photons to pass through without bouncing off much.

Some photons are always reflected, refracted or absorbed by any surface, that's how come you can see stuff.

Usually it's the medium having an effect on the light, though obviously anything that happens is "interactive".

Hope that helps

Answer 5

If the light has a mass , It will show the phenomenon of Reflection but it will not show refraction . De - broglie hypothesis will go wrong. The Energy will be produced after striking from an
obstacle and Just Imagine Sun light is giving momentum to the Earth and acquires enough Kinetic energy and may perhaps be go away from Sun and loses its orbit.

Answer 6

Light has a definite but small mass that is why it is limited by relativity to the 'speed of light'. it travels through transparent material due to its wave/particle duality. eg it is neither a particle (photon) nor a wave but both simultaneously. it achieves this by tunnelling though vacant energy levels left in the electronic structure of the crystal using unoccupied electron bands that are found in Insulators.

Metals cannot generally conduct light as they are electrical conductors and as such do not have vacant electron bands for light to travel. semi conductors partly do that's why the are good at converting light into electrical energy!

Answer 7

How can you be sure it's the same photon coming out of the glass or being reflected by it?

Does the thickness of the glass matter?

Mr Feynman has interesting views on this and other light related issues.

Answer 8

Because the light is a wave and a particle. The glass is a fluid and fluids lets the light pass through them... and in some times, the light is a wave, so, the light can pass through the bodys

Answer 9

The question that my physics profs never completely answered for me was this:

Is light a wave, or a particle?? If it is truly a wave, then it can travel. But if it is a particle, how does it bend and refract and move through media like glass and water...

??

Answer 10

Same way as it travels through air, but a bit slower. But I've never heard the mechanism explained -- why through these but not through opaque materials? Incidentally, I think the definition of opaque is that light can't go through it, so that part of your question is contradictory. But it certainly raises an interesting issue.