Where do they come from? Are photons "matter"? Do they have any mass? Is light made of photons? Can anything travel faster than the speed of light? sorry for all the questions but im just really curious!!! can someone please give me some answers in non-physics langauge (im not very good at physics) thank you!! :)
2007-07-02 06:33:50 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Photons are massless and are traditionally not called "matter" by physicists, although they prefer to not use that imprecise term and rather talk of things like mass, energy, and particles.
Photons carry light quanta, that is, they carry the indivisible "units" of light. However, photons are a bit strange because in experiments they can be shown to be treated as both particles and waves (the so called "particle-wave duality"). This means light can both bend like waves with lenses, but it can only interact with matter like a particle would. For example, when photons "hits" your eye, a photorecptor cell sends signals to your brain the light it received.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum, and no experiment yet has proven the contrary. There are Faster-Than-Light theories that involve bending spacetime, but again, nothing proven and mere speculation.
2007-07-02 06:48:35 · answer #1 · answered by Jonas Nordlund 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Photons are quanta of electro-magnetic energy. If they propagate at a wavelength detectable by the human eye, then they're called "light." At different wavelengths, they can be known as microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays, heat, and radio waves.
When you see something, what is happening is that the electrons in the atoms that make up that object are shifting from a high-energy to a low-energy orbit. When they shift, they release the extra energy in a packet (or quanta) of energy that travels at the speed of light until it bumps into something else (such as your eye).
According to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, Matter and Energy are interchangeable.... matter is like "frozen" energy. But matter has mass, and energy doesn't. Only massless particles - such as photons - are able to travel at the speed of light. In fact, massless particles MUST travel at the speed of light. Particles with mass must travel at slower-than-light velocities.
2007-07-02 14:42:29 · answer #2 · answered by Egghead 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A photon is the force carrier, or boson, for the electromagnetic force. It is massless, travels at the speed of light and conducts all energy on the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light.
2007-07-02 14:43:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Photons are packets of energy. If you ever saw one of those 'clicker' toys then you realize that the clicker does not 'contain' clicks. It simply releases energy when the conditions are correct. Same with an atom. The electrons absorb or emit 'clicks' (photons) when the conditions are right.
2007-07-02 13:41:08 · answer #4 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Photons are packets of energy, they have no mass and are caused by electrons moving from one energy level to another.
2007-07-04 11:12:36 · answer #5 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A photon is a subatomic particle, that exhibits the properties of both a particle and wave.
2007-07-02 13:43:09 · answer #6 · answered by WarLabRat 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are photons the same as protons?
2007-07-02 13:37:36 · answer #7 · answered by pegasis 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they are small packages of energy, in this way they can not have any mass and they are not kinds of matter. but consider this question. is matter a very special kind of energy? a fact: matter and energy can be changed into each other.
2007-07-02 13:39:13 · answer #8 · answered by mhrhashemi 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ghopst
2007-07-02 13:36:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋