Author Topic: Does light, theoretically, have any mass?  (Read 5259 times)

you can't have momentum without mass
momentum is mass times velocity
anything multiplied by zero is zero
The counter to this argument is that light may not carry any momentum at all. If light is viewed solely as a wave (electromagnetic radiation) it would have no momentum at all. However, as I said a moment ago, there is a kind of blur where light acts as both a wave and a particle.

This is generally taught to most people without using the title of wave particle duality. Most people have heard the term 'photon' (which would be a light particle) and most people also know that light travels in a wave, the length of which determines its color. Quantum physics are extremely complicated and difficult to grasp, but most people are already aware on a subconscious level that this is how it works. Photons carry mass as do all particles, waves are merely a transfer of energy. Light acts like both at once.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2014, 01:45:07 AM by $trinick »

I may not be science expert, but what I do know is that science geeks are always over the little things. But if I have learned anything, its that light is energy and that energy is probably acting on something.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2014, 01:42:58 AM by Harm94 »

there is a kind of blur where light acts as both a wave and a particle.
i can't believe i forgot this, was one of the most dramatic things my science teacher ever said.
like he screamed that stuff, what would that man do without his science.

imo light has an unmeasurable amount of mass.
photons move in straight paths always unless of course acted on by gravity. earth has gravity and last time i checked mass has gravity. earth has very very large mass, therefore lots of gravity so in turn, earth does affect light.
Black holes for example are massive gravity wells, they have so much mass and are so dense, most light cannot escape it.
everything is energy. mass can be converted to energy (heat energy, friction, etc). A good example of this too is fission. When we break down uranium-transuranium elements, they split into two different elements, but if you were to add the mass of both elements up it would not equal the mass of the previously fissioned element. This proves that mass was transformed into energy, or heat.

Light is a hybrid between photons and waves. It may be effected by gravity, but does that mean it has mass?
I don't even know.

Light is a hybrid between photons and waves. It may be effected by gravity, but does that mean it has mass?
I don't even know.

It does. The higgs-boson particle (also known as the God particle) is the particle responsible for giving all objects mass. Higgs fields are attracted to each other which is what creates force between two objects, better known as gravity. If something is affected by gravity (as light is) it must have a Higgs field and thus must have mass.

It does. The higgs-boson particle (also known as the God particle) is the particle responsible for giving all objects mass. Higgs fields are attracted to each other which is what creates force between two objects, better known as gravity. If something is affected by gravity (as light is) it must have a Higgs field and thus must have mass.
Heard of spacetime? It is a way of explaining gravity that sticks with the idea of light lacking mass altogether.

It does. The higgs-boson particle (also known as the God particle) is the particle responsible for giving all objects mass. Higgs fields are attracted to each other which is what creates force between two objects, better known as gravity. If something is affected by gravity (as light is) it must have a Higgs field and thus must have mass.

But it must be such an insignificant amount that it doesn't actually affect anything, right?

Heard of spacetime? It is a way of explaining gravity that sticks with the idea of light lacking mass altogether.
i don't even know what this sentence means.

But it must be such an insignificant amount that it doesn't actually affect anything, right?
well light plays a very important roll in space-craft. if they launched viking without calculating the affect of light, it would've missed Mars by 15,000km

well light plays a very important roll in space-craft. if they launched viking without calculating the affect of light, it would've missed Mars by 15,000km
are you reading wikipedia articles right now
because I was
and I just read that a minute ago

are you reading wikipedia articles right now
because I was
and I just read that a minute ago
yeah. learning&stuff

yeah. learning&stuff
I'm reading about rangefinders now. you know how it goes with wikipedia

I'm reading about rangefinders now. you know how it goes with wikipedia
10 pages t'ill Riddler

Space-time bends due to gravity, if that's what you're referring to. This doesn't really lend itself to the idea that light lacks mass, however. The issue of what we're talking about is that quantum physics is inherently illogical and difficult to comprehend. The brain doesn't like to accept wave particle duality because we can't fathom something being in two states simultaneously without actually being either (Schrodinger's Cat). The traditional concept of mass is locked into being viewed as a particle, you can't view a wave as an object with mass regardless of how you look at it. So, regardless of how you look at it, light does not have mass in the same way your keyboard does.

However, it can be inferred that photons carry mass. There's a very, very famous equation that states E=mc2. In classical electromagnetic theory (no wave-particle duality) E can actually be defined as E=pc where p is merely momentum. However, this equation is limited to the scope of classical electromagnetic theory. Special relativity rejects this equation in favor of E=mc2. This was, as you may have guessed, one of Einstein's biggest discoveries.

But it must be such an insignificant amount that it doesn't actually affect anything, right?
Its effect is relative to its mass, as redundant as that sounds. If you drop a baseball on your foot it's going to do significantly less damage than if you drop a bowling ball. Photons are extremely small particles, so the change in velocity an object inherits from being hit by a photon is the definition of negligible. However, photons do exert force on objects they hit.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2014, 02:25:07 AM by $trinick »

i believe it was, that everything has mass.
if it can be measured to travel in a speed (light is), then it needs mass lol

i believe it was, that everything has mass.
if it can be measured to travel in a speed (light is), then it needs mass lol
That's bad logic. Speed doesn't require mass, it just requires any thing (even a theoretical mass-less box) move a certain distance over a certain amount of time relative to something else. Mass doesn't not factor into it.