Photons are particles of electromagnetic energy, which would include radio waves including microwaves, light including infrared, visible and ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, and some cosmic rays. Although photons have no rest mass, they nevertheless have energy, linear momentum, and spin.
Photons are indivisible, i.e., they can't break down into smaller or simpler particles, and they are stable. That is, photons don't decay into something else spontaneously, but they can be absorbed by other kinds of particles and impart energy to them. Photons can also be emitted by other particles, but the emitting particle loses the energy represented by the photon.
Photons can be seen, but not in the conventional sense. You can't shine light onto a photon; the light IS photons. Instead, if a group of photons of the right amount of energy enters the eye, they will be absorbed by the eye and produce a sensation of light. You are able to read this because an unimaginably large number of photons are being emitted by your display, some of which are entering your eye and interacting with it.
Photons can be created and annihilated in other ways too. For example, when a subatomic particle and its complementary antiparticle come together, both particles are annihilated and two photons are created. (Antiparticles are no longer the stuff of science fiction; small amounts of it can be created in the laboratory and some is even produced naturally on earth in the decay of certain radioactive substances.)
A high-energy photon can also be annihilated when it comes near a nucleus and produce a particle and its corresponding antiparticle, with any leftover energy going into kinetic energy of the created particles.
2007-05-18 10:30:32
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answer #1
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answered by devilsadvocate1728 6
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon
this is a great site to look up information. I find it compliments howstuffworks well
in modern science energy is carried in packets of energy called quanta. The name for electromagnetic packet/quanta is the photon. These quanta are the smallest amount of energy that can be transmitted from 1 place to another and they always have to be full (no part full packets). The amount of energy in the packet/quanta/photon is dependent on the frequancy of the light.
This idea was created by a guy called max Planck as a "mathematical trick" to explain a problem called black body radiation.
It took the genius of Einstein to realise that it wasn't a trick but that these photons were real elementary particles.
In experiments nowadays we can detect single photons hitting light detectors.
Strangely these photons act in very odd ways sometimes acting like a wave and sometimes as particles, it seams to depend on what the experiment is looking for. If the experiment is designed to look for waves then the photon will be a wave and if the experiment is designed to look for particles then the photon will be a particle.
Either the photon is trying to be helpful and knows what you are looking for or the photon is a wave and a point like particle at the same time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment (sub heading Quantum version of experiment)
this is called wave particle duality and amazingly applies to all particles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality
Its a truly amazing concept
2007-05-18 10:36:00
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answer #2
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answered by colin p 3
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Photon description is sticky. By STRICTEST definition, it is a packet of energy, which carries the ability to do physical work on a solid particle. It has been shown to knock subatomic particles around, and can be detected through physical devices.
BUT, every single photon we have found to date also carries an assigned wave frequency. When we detect them, part of the findings involves frequency. Thus, in some conditions, they act like waves and can be modified using classic wave physics.
To make things worse, sometimes when we think the physical photon should be trapped, the wave photon sneaks through the trap, and the same goes for wave traps.
2007-05-18 10:22:19
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answer #3
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answered by science_joe_2000 4
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particular. Photons can create remember. interior the approach spoke of as pair production, a particularly over a million.1MEV gamma ray (photon) can create 2 debris; a positron an an electron, each and every having an equivalent entire capability of 0.55MEV. despite if as a results of fact the capability is switched over to mass the loads created will no longer be moving on the cost of sunshine yet at slower velocities. turning out to be genuinely molecules out of photons on my own despite if is a distant threat as a results of fact atoms encompass diverse debris with diverse features and needn't be created by utilising photons on my own. maximum debris heavier than electrons are produced from quarks.
2016-11-24 22:31:11
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answer #4
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answered by ? 4
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A photon is the name given to on quantum particle of light.
2007-05-18 09:56:35
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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They are energy!
No !
They are an electromagnetic wave!
No!
They are particles!
Actually they are all of the above.
It is true. When we add ergy to an electron it jumps to a higher orbit and when it loses energy it jumps to a lower level releasing that quantum of energy in a form of a particular photon, of a particular frequency.
2007-05-18 09:56:38
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answer #6
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answered by Edward 7
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They are also called a Light Quantum and are a minute energy packet of electromagnetic radiation.
2007-05-18 10:00:20
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answer #7
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answered by D.J. 1
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photons are particles of light energy
2007-05-18 10:21:45
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answer #8
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answered by Dr. Eddie 6
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a light particle
2007-05-18 10:08:15
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answer #9
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answered by rosie recipe 7
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gk_maths/?tab=s
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2007-05-18 09:57:50
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answer #10
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answered by Sanjay C 1
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