2007-07-21 03:05:36 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
No, never. Anything traveling at the speed of light will never have rest mass, and it always travel at that speed since the beginning of the universe.
2007-07-21 11:41:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any thing that can collide and bounce off a mass structure would qualify as another mass.
Light Was postulated by Einstein as a particle.No one has ever contradicted that.
Particles must have a volume in order to exist. And moving volume can move in sequence as a train;this motion would follow the same formula as if if was a wave.
Any structure that can be given the power to move in the material Universe is considered a mass no matter how small it is.
Experiments have shown that a photon train moving at a certain frequency indicated a mass limit of a particule of light in the order of 10^-51 kilograms.This was in very close agreement to theoretical calculations of photon masses. This fact is in the process of being incorporated into the description of the nature of light in physics.Neverthe less no one has ever been able to identify the substance content of what constitutes the mass of light photons.
Very ,vely intuitive question.
In the Biblical account of Creation ,light was the first micromass structure." let there be light"
2007-07-21 11:06:15 · answer #2 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
As long as light moves at the speed of light it can have no mass. The two conditions are mutually exclusive. If you slow light down by passing it through matter, it converts from photons with spin and charge (but no mass) to electrons with spin mass and charge equal to the original light. That's Einstein's photoelectric principal, used in solar cells, optical detectors and plants for photosynthesis, and many other phenomenon.
2007-07-21 13:03:56 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, despite light having wave-particle duality:
Particle model - photons are packets of energy, they do not have a physical mass.
Wave model - light is a em-wave, waves transfer energy and as such do not have mass.
Although it does not have a mass, it can transfer momentum, it can push objects on its way like wind - currently there does not exist a model to explain this which is the reason why the quantum model cannot be reconciled with the other models yet.
2007-07-21 10:10:17 · answer #4 · answered by Tsumego 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Light, or electromagnetic energy, is able to form into mass (electron pairs, when entering near the center of an atom). In this sense the high frequency photon becomes mass itself. There is an illustration of this at http://youtube.com "Gravity Engine" It is in the first segment of the two.
2007-07-21 12:40:33 · answer #5 · answered by d_of_haven 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no matter can only have mass while, many can see it having mass because of light being the only energy moving in photons, but energy can not have mass
2007-07-21 17:57:38 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light is made of Photons.Photons have no rest mass but they do have a relativistic mass.
2007-07-21 11:34:51 · answer #7 · answered by Migin V 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If we consider the particle nature of light, then possibelly it can have mass.
2007-07-21 10:12:12 · answer #8 · answered by pihoo 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
no mass, just energy
2007-07-21 10:24:36 · answer #9 · answered by Owl Eye 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is a Noble Prize waiting for the person who can definitively answer this question.
2007-07-21 10:08:06 · answer #10 · answered by Mr. G 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋