e=mc2 Trying to reach the speed of light?

Question

If, as you approach the speed of light, mass increases so that you would need an infinite amount of energy and never be able to reach that velocity . How is it that a photon ( a particle of light) which I believe does have mass, manage to screw up Einstein's equation and travel at 300,000 km/sec.?

Answer 1

Light and moving mass have one thing in common:

They have MOMENTUM:

P = h / ν (Plancks constant / wavelength -for light)

P = mv (mass x velocity -for objects with rest mass)


This relation demonstrates the particle nature of light. IT DOES NOT, however contain a mass. Light exhibits a particle-wave duality. An observer can 'force' a quanta of light to behave as a particle or a wave (BUT NEVER SIMULTANEOUSLY) by performing a measurement (experiment) of the light.

A photon will 'bend' in the presence of a gravitational field because the space-time fabric was been warped (as described by general relativity). A black hole warps space time so severely that not even light can escape (at the event horizon)

Answer 2

Photons have no mass in the conventional sense. Their rest mass is all converted to pure energy.
They are not affected directly by gravity. They merely travel in as straight a path as possible through the space that is warped by gravity. They also have no electric field and are not affected by magnetic fields.

Now back to your original question. I strongly suspect that succeeding in reaching a significant percentage of the speed of light would result in your becoming a black hole.
As your mass approached infinity, and before you reached light speed, your mass would become such that it would collapse under its own enormous gravitational field - hence, a black hole. This is just another reason why an object will never achieve, let alone surpass, the speed of light.

Einstein's formulas, once again, prove themselves to be correct.

Answer 3

Photons don't actually have mass, but they are affected by gravity. This is because gravity is the warping of the space time fabric that causes an acceleration proportional to the object creating the distortion, not a force proportional to the mass of the object it is acting on. Thus even massless objects are effected by gravity

Answer 4

This is a common mistake made by students when dealing with mass.

Photons do not have invariant mass defined as m0 = sqrt(E2/c4 - p2/c2) where E = energy, p=momentum, c=speed of light in a vacuum.

Photons do have relativistic mass defined as mr = E/c2. As one can see relativistic mass moves toward infinity as velocity moves toward the speed of light.

Physicists are refering to invariant mass when citing their relativistic research.

Answer 5

I don't know, but I'm sure that photons have mass due to the fact that they are affected by gravity, as light from distant stars tends to warp around fields of intense gravity. But why? If you find out what's wrong with einstein's theory, please let me know.

Answer 6

Einstein never predicted that something could not travel AT the speed of light. He predicted that nothing could be accelerated TO the speed of light. Light is not accelerated, it simply exists traveling the speed of light.

Answer 7

Einstein made a mistake in his assumption that as a mass moves it gains greater mass. It seemed at the time as though it ought to work in this manner due to mass and energy being able to directly equate with one another. It requires some change in a mass in order for it to move, and in that energy and mass are interchangeable, and moving mass acquires energy potential in form of kinetic energy, what he proposed seemed correct.

Why it is that mass moves may be found in the comparison between a mass moving near the speed of light in outer space (minus 25 mps), and an identical mass found in a location within our planet, 0.717 miles from its very center.

As a mass moves toward the speed of light it is not additional mass that accumulates within. The potential energy change within is due to its overall frequency change in direction of travel. A mass at rest is able to have energy pass through a perfect conductor (in this instance electrical energy) in any direction at the speed of light. As a mass accelerates this is not true. The greater the speed of a moving mass, the less potential there is for energy to move at right angles to the direction of travel. In the illustration of our two masses, energy could have a potential of movement only 25 mps (miles per second) at right angles to the direction of travel. At the speed of light there would be zero potential for energy change in any direction. The mass and all energy potential would equal the speed of light and time would become zero.

Lastly, this is amplified in the physics trilogy; E = mc2, m = E/c2, and c2 = E/m. Notice that the singular unchanging value of these equations is that of “c2”. This is because this value is the basis of mass and energy. “c2” is known to us as physical time, or a gravitational field. It is what we and all else in our universe is composed of. This value describes how long time exists before it moves into becoming our past, and it describes that there is no manner for us to interact with either the past or future, because they do not exist. All that exists is present time. Present time cannot compound in order for it to change into something else other than “c2”, and because mass is composed of the value of “c2” mass cannot exist within a mass.

http://timebones.blogspot.com and
http://360.yahoo.com/noddarc may be of interest

Answer 8

photons dont have a mass

Answer 9

It has zero REST mass. Otherwise they do, indeed have mass.