"Photons travel in space-time by creating waves". Is this statement true ? and if it is false than why ?

Question

I know it may sound crazy for some people but i think it is true.

Answer 1

This statement is false. People have hard time accepting wave-particle duality, but if one studies where the ideas of wave-like nature come from, one would see that the equations governing light describe a phenomenon that behaves like a wave. Be careful though, just because the mathematical model has periodic oscillations in it which explain interference, diffraction, etc. that doesn't mean that the light itself is actually a wave.

A similar misconception occurs with the wave like nature of electrons, and other massive particles. The particles themselves aren't waves, the functions of probability of location, momentum, etc. are wave-like and behave accordingly.

Wave-particle duality, like most tricky things in physics, can be understood when one takes a step back and decides what is reality and what is a human abstraction (like a mathematical tool) used to describe reality.

Answer 2

Photons are particles. They are the carrier of Electromagnetic Radiation(e.g. light). They are not waves. Some people have misconfusion about what is light? Is light a particle or a wave? The answer to this question lies in a principle called wave-particle duality. It states that matter and light show the properties of both waves and particles. e.g. electron is sometimes called as cathode rays or β rays.Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie and many others, it is now accepted that all objects have both wave and particle nature (though this phenomenon is only detectable on small scales, such as with atoms), and that a suitable interpretation of quantum mechanics provides the over-arching theory resolving this ostensible paradox. Oh I forgot................"Photons travel in space-time by creating waves" - The statement is false. The photons travel in straight line. The photons do not create waves but because of wave-particle duality, we can say that it is creating waves.

Answer 3

No Michael, the photons are waves themselves, they just exist or transform into another form of material/energy. They cannot create anything. Happy new year!

Answer 4

The dual nature of matter: All matter is electromagnetic energy (wave).
You can calculate the wave length of any particle from these formulas:
E-mc^2 and E=h*frequency=hc/(wave length)
where:
h=6.6262*10^(-34) [Js] = Planck’s constant
c=speed of light = +-300000 [m/s]
So:
Frequency=E/h, since E=mc^2
Frequency=mc^2/h
This is the electromagnetic wave frequency of any particle.
And its wave length = c/frequency

Conclusion: Mass and energy are two aspects of matter and basicly is the same thing