2006-09-28 06:41:36 · 6 answers · asked by venga_61 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
do you know which one is faster
2006-09-28 06:43:20 · update #1
Photons are mass-less and travel at the speed of light. Electrons have mass and therefore cannot travel at the speed of light.
2006-09-28 06:45:32 · answer #1 · answered by lunatic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Photons in a vacuum travel at, well, the speed of light in a vacuum. They can travel at slightly slower speeds through other mediums (and have even been slowed to 38 miles per hour in the lab: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.18/light.html )
Electrons have a wide range of speeds, from a relatively poky 0.024 centimeters per second, to very near the speed of light.
To quote from a Department of Energy website: "A slow case: we know that electrons move when there is a current flow in a wire, but the speed at which the electrons themselves move in the wire -- the so-called electron drift velocity -- surprises most people. For example, for a copper wire of radius 1 mm carrying a steady current of 10 amps, the drift velocity is only about 0.024 cm/sec ! On the fast side: the Bohr model of the hydrogen
atom has the (bound) electron zipping around the nucleus at about 2 million meters/sec. And on the very fast side, some examples are: beta particles, which are emitted by some radioactive materials; and the innermost electrons of atoms of elements having large atomic number, such as uranium. In
these cases the electrons are traveling at very nearly the speed of light. (about 300 million meters/sec)."
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy99/phy99092.htm
2006-09-28 16:52:22 · answer #2 · answered by Jack D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I hate to answer a question with a question and I understand to a small degree E=MC2 in relation to objects of mass traveling at the speed of light, but both photons and electrons are moved by the electromagnetic force in the universe so at the quantum level wont they both travel at the speed of light?
2006-09-28 14:02:06 · answer #3 · answered by momojo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Electrons can travel at any speed from zero up to, but not including, the speed of light. Photons cannot even exist except when they are traveling at exactly the speed of light.
2006-09-28 13:59:27 · answer #4 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Photons are assumed to be massless. The velocity of both are of same order.
2006-09-28 13:59:08 · answer #5 · answered by Dr M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
velocity of both of them are the same: light velocity.
2006-09-28 14:01:43 · answer #6 · answered by CHESSLARUS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋