Photons? if masseless without density Then they are only imaginary entities?

Question

Only mathemathical construct describing different energy levels diferences of the Atom?

Answer 1

Why do you attach such importance to mass? It seems entirely irrational, and is not grounded in science.

Most particles have more energy than mass. Even protons and neutrons are made up of quarks with the mass of the quarks making up only 5% of the mass of the proton and the rest coming from the energy of the quarks.

Photons are most definitely not imaginary.

Answer 2

No, photons are not just a construct: they are quite real. It's just very confusing because you are dealing with this on a quantum level. On that level things behave in ways that are very different than the way we experience things on a macroscopic level.

First, density of a photon really doesn't have much meaning. Density is really a useful concept only on larger scales and is not typically applied to individual particles. Also, photons DO actually have mass, however they have zero rest mass. To understand the implications of that involves an exploration of Special Relativity which is well beyond the scope of this discussion.

Much of the confusion surrounding photons is their wave/particle duality (something all particles actually possess, but which is acutely apparent in a zero rest mass particle like the photon). You can learn a lot more about this phenomena, it's discovery, experimental validation, and consequences here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality

Answer 3

Don't try and understand quantum physics on normal levels.
Think of a photon as a little ball of a wave. A 'wave packet' if you will. They have no mass, but they exist as energy, so they're not a particle in the classical sense of the word, but some of their actions are more easily explained as being similar to that of a particle.
In reality though, this is just expressing their energy as kinetic energy.

Answer 4

No, photons are indeed physically real (however massless) particles, not just some convenient mathematical trick to make things work.

Just because something is massless doesn't mean it doesn't exist. For example, electric and magnetic fields (which both go into making an EM wave...light) are also massless, but each can be tested to exist.

Answer 5

Photons have momentum, they can apply a force. If they can apply a force then how can they be imaginary? You can not say weather or not they have a density because of the waive-particle duality and the heisenberg uncertainty. You can not treat photons as strickly particles!

Answer 6

Nonetheless we see light! And worse, without light we wouldn't see a damn thing really. Yet again, try to prove your thoughts and you will stumble in the same problem as that of photons, you do think nonetheless!?

It only proves that things we cannot measure or deduce can still exist without our detection. They only don't exist in our measurments and our deductions but otherwise they will continue to work fine as they should. And maybe one day we can fit them on anyone of our tangible scales, rather than on an imaginary scales of pure mathematical hypothesis.

Answer 7

ah ha!
you could be right, this has confused me also
(Photons don't really "look like" anything. If you want to think about it quantum mechanically, there are neither waves nor particles, just states.)

Answer 8

If you try and box them up they disappear.

Also, they don't experience time (because they travel at the speed of light) so one just arriving now , 13.4 billion years after the big bang, has only just been formed.

Isn't the quantum world wonderfully weird ?

Answer 9

Yes, no, not really; more of a model than a math construct.

Answer 10

Ya, we use to think air was imaginary till we discovered it was a gas.