According to Einstein, the speed of light can "neither be reached nor exceeded by any real body."
Why are photons so special that they get to go that fast?
2007-11-27 14:32:20 · 4 answers · asked by John K 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
they have 0 mass. so what happens when u apply any energy to something with 0 mass. it should go infinitely fast, but it doesnt. so that leads to the relatively logical conclusion that 186,000 miles per second, or 3 x 10^8 meters per second, is the maximum speed of the universe. this was verified in experiments showing that the mass of anything that originally had mass increases with speed, leading to infinite mass at the speed of light. since a photon has no mass its mass doesnt increase.
2007-11-27 14:45:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Firstly, Photon is a name for the energy packets. And its mass is zero.
For any other body to reach that state, it is obvious that its mass should be zero and at that point it does not behaves as photon but becomes a light photon.
It is one property of light emitting bodies, that they emit light as photons. That is the only speciality about photons.
2007-11-27 16:55:45 · answer #2 · answered by Harihara S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What Einstein meant was that nothing with *mass* can reach or exceed the speed of light. Photons are massless, therefore are not subject to that limitation.
2007-11-27 15:09:38 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are not exactly particles, apparently... it's quite nonsensical.
2007-11-27 14:37:38 · answer #4 · answered by Adam H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋