If Fotons is a packet what's inside the packet?

Question

Wasnt this question that drove Abbot & costello wacky?It mass yes ,no its not a mass,Yes energy ,What ene]ergy its a watt but what 's on first etcc...?what is energy i dont know, its what inside the packet ?......

Answer 1

First of all, spell it correctly, it is "photon", not "Foton".

Second, the term "packet" used to describe a photon is just a metaphor, it is not a real packet, it has not real volume, it is just a way to imagine the concept.

A photon carries energy in a particle like way.
Light is both a wave and a particle. Photons make up the particle nature of light.

A photon has no rest mass, however, it does carry momentum due to the fact that it has energy,
E = pc
E = hv
where E is the photon's Energy, p is the photon's momentum, c is the speed of light in a vacuum, h is Plank's constant, and v is the frequency of the light in question.

Answer 2

There is nothing material inside the "packet". This packet that you are refering to here is called a wave packet, which is a probability wave function. What this means is that it is just a mathematical description of the probability of finding the photon at some location in space at some point in time. There are NO waves inside the packet!!!

BTW, a photon is massless, so there is literally nothing there. The only thing we can say about a photon is that it has a certain amount of energy (which is function of its frequency), it has a certain polarization, a direction of travel, and it moves at 300,000 km/s in vacuum. That's about it.

Answer 3

In Physics we have matter and energy. We are familiar with materials and packet of materials- discrete quantity.

Energy which is different from materials has some properties.

When energy interacts with matter they are not continuous but in certain quanta. That is they are counted as one two three etc.

How will you describe this situation, with out any analogy known to us? At the same time it should describe the behavior.

A blind man asked what is white. The other man replied it is like milk. Blind man asked how the milk will be. The other replied it will be like a crane. Blind man asked how the crane ill be. The other man replied it will be like your fore arm.

Finally the blind man went with a knowledge that white will be like his forearm.

Therefore when it is said that energy is in bundles or pockets one should not take it for granted that pockets are made of some materials and is filled with some thing like energy etc.

As far as energy is concerned it is like ‘white’ for blind man. Scientists explain them. We have to comprehend it correctly.

Answer 4

I would say that if one wanted to view the matter this way, then inside the packet would be momentum. The reason I say this is, the particle nature of light, a photon, shows up as momentum. For example when a photon knocks an electron out of an atom.

Answer 5

a photon is described as a wave packet. This is a way of saying that it is not just one wave but a linear combonation of waves (a bunch of waves added up)

So in side the wave packet is a whole bunch of waves.

(there is a theorm that you can prove ... if you take a linear combonation of sine waves you can produce a wave of any shape that you wish. So that is what the wave packet is made up of)

Answer 6

Hi Goring, I think when they say "photon packet," they only mean a packet (that is, a bunch or a grouping) of photons.

Answer 7

Photon is not a packet of matter it's the packet of energy so energy is there

Answer 8

There are Fotons in a packet of Foton.

Answer 9

Nothing.


Doug

Answer 10

Blue ones, orange ones, green ones, and purple ones. Some of them are chocolate.