what r photons?

Question

u'd say they r particles of light
but particles? is that ryt?
its said that light is a wave
argument of newtons theory and huygens theory
and if photons are particles, they can pass throgh some solid substances cant they?
and what exactly is a quantum?
i want a precise explanation bcoz i dont very much understand it is said that quanta r ''packets of energy''
packets? what exactly, in scientific terms r ''packets?''
does light have a mass or not?
when photons have mass...then.....?
and in a diagram in physics that shows a photon liberated, is shown as wave and not as a particle....




thank u

Answer 1

well lets go back to the history of light.
first of all newton considered light to contain particles and this made him think that light traveled faster in a medium than in air(which of course u know is wrong) .
later after experiments by huygen and the like interference and diffraction came about and this could be explained using the wave nature and hence it was decided that light was a wave.
then came a new twist in the story..........
Planck discovered about photoelectric effect and thus the particle nature of light came up again. It was Planck who coined the term photon. Photon actually is a packet of energy.
let me explain the meaning of packet.
when you consider charge you see that charge is an integral multiple of the fundamental charge and you can get only integral multiples of that value and not 3.5 times of it or 0.4 of it etc.
similarly now each photon carries a fundamental quantum of energy.thus each photon is a source of this energy and this was referred to as a packet of energy due to the various anologys and the name just stuck and people still refer to it as packets of energy.
now a photon doesn't have mass but it has momentum this is due to the consequence of Einstein's special theory of relativity about which u will learn about later.

Answer 2

A photon is a particle of light,a quantum bit of energy.
When a photon travels through space it also has a wave characteristic.
When energy travels through water as a wave the molecules of water do not follow the wave,they simply move up and down as it passes.
A photon is a bit of energy,energy and mass are interchangeable.
We know there is pressure from sun light,solar sails.
When a photon exists one of the parameters of it's existence is it's speed "C"
Space represents the ocean an a photon the transfer of energy.

Answer 3

a photon is a wave and a particle as is everything else out there.

yes they can pass through some things, you can look through glass can;t you?

a packet of energy is just a way of explaining that photons transmit energy and are energy. from what we can tell light does not have a mass, but it does have momentum.

it shows photons as waves in diamgrams just top simplify it, you try drawing a wave/particle.

Answer 4

what is meant by a wave..........is it not a travelling disturbance....is it not transporting energy, this energy is transported in integral multiples of certain no.........u call this energy a photon.
photon is simply a light quantum

Answer 5

A geeky poem cool

Answer 6

http://www.answers.com/Photon, http://www.answers.com/Quantum, http://www.answers.com/topic/wave-particle-duality-1

Answer 7

good question!