Light is produced when atoms release stored energy. In fact material atoms are made of energy and all their energy can be released as light(electromagnetic radiation)according to E=mc^2
Conversely electromagnetic energy can
be transformed into material particles such as electrons and positrons .
Thus matter and energy are interconvertible static and kinetic forms of one substance.
Electromagnetic photons are massless and chargeless.But when thisy kinetic energy is transformed into static material particles, tbe properties of mass and charge emerge. These "emergent" properties must have existed in a potential
unmanifest state within the photon (or how could theze properties miraculously appear out of nothing and nowhere?)
Perhaps because photons do not exist in a static state but are always moving at light speed, tbese properties (like "time") do not cease to exist but cease to be measureable/detectable. How would you measure tbe mass of a particle moving at light speed.?
Photons are the basic quantum unit of the action of electromagnetic radiation. They have no mass and no charge. They travel through space at 186,000 miles per second with no loss in energy until they collide with other particles. Thus photons,
( tiny particle-waves with no mass, no charge, no time, neither matter nor anti-matter) constitute one of the basic units of action in physics.
It is as if photons exist in space, but not in time:
Imagine that you are a photon travelling through space at the speed of light. If you were to look at your watch, you would, according to the theory of relativity discover that time was standing still. Hence you could travel to the very edges of the known universe without aging a single day, although, to an observer on earth, it would take you three billion years to get there.
A photon, when it is annihilated, is able to create particles of matter and anti-matter which have both mass, charge, and time,.
How can "massless" photons materialize into particles possesing mass and charge?
Conversely when particles of matter and anti-matter come into contact with each other, their measurable properties of mass,charge,time are annihilated and photons are produced (the "mass,charge,time" properties cease to be measureable)
A photon with a specific energy, "E" ,
although it is experimentally "massless"
nevertheless has a mathematicaly calculatable finite mass of m=E/c^2.
E=mc^2,
c^2 =E/m
Light is produced when atoms release stored energy. In fact material atoms are made
When photons materialize into particles do they always yield twins; i.e. one matter particle and a twin antimatter particle, ...or do they sometimes materialize as single particles --such as an electron without a positron?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_production
DeletePhotons (which are massless) can be converted into objects with non-zero mass. This is called "pair production".
Direct a photon onto a nucleus, and if the energy of the photon is above ~1 MeV, then it is energetically allowed that photon + (virtual) photon -> electron + positron.
The original photon is lost. In its place are now an e+ e- pair. There is a minimum photon energy for this process to happen... that energy has to be above twice the electron mass.
Obtaining chunkier particles like protons and antiprotons (or atoms and antiatoms) would require much more energetic photons.
When photons materialize into particles why do they always do so as
matter-antimatter twins wch then annihilate (since antimatter cannot exist for long in nature)?
We know that light can materialize into material particles such as electron/positron pairs wch have mass.
DeleteHow does mass appear out of nowhere... if it was not pre-existent within the photon?
Wpuld it be reasonable to infer that the amount of mass lost by an atom wben it ejects a photon is equivalent to the mass of the ejected photon?
DeleteA photon of sufficient energy can morph into an electron/positron pair (with mass).
DeleteHow can this property of mass emerge ex nihilo if it was not already pre-existent in the photon?
Perhaps light bypasses the space-time realm altogetber by moving tbrough another dimension. Tberefore. light. is. not subject to tbe laws of nature that function witbin. tbe space-time domain.
ReplyDeletePerhaps light operates botb within a.d outside space-time.
DeleteIt seems reazonable to hypothezise that virtual photons do not emerge from "empty space" ,but from some other dimension otber than space-time-- a dimension/realm to wch our limited perceptual faculties are denied access.
(Although hardcore empiricists would say that if we cant access/observe it, it doesnt
exist. )
DeleteWhat we can see and undrrstand is but a
small part of reality.
More tban we can even imagine and dream remains to be discovered.
We do not know all the laws of physics and all the forces of nature. There may be higher laws and forces wch we do not yet understand wch subsume and override the laws and forces we presently know. It is ignorant conceit and delusion to believe that what we now know is all there is to know!
Delete
ReplyDeleteIf matter and energy are interchangable and photons can materialize into atomic matter and visa verza, then this brings "teleportation" into the realm of possibility.We should be able to reduce a material object into digital code , transmit it in the form of electromagnetic radiation, and reconstitute it at its destination into tbe original object using a 3d atomic printer (just as we transmit and receive digital information by radiowaves today)
"Beam me up,Scotty!"
Accordi.v g to Einstein, the flow rate or velocity of time is. not constant but varies depending on Tbe veloc ity of one's observationl frme of reference. The fasfer yku go, tbe slower time flows... until you reach tbe. limit of ligbt zpeed , at wch velocity time stops and stands still. From tbe observational point of view of a photon(or observer) moving tbrough space at the speed of light, time is frozen In the "eternal now" and any spatial distance can be traversed in zero time; i.e. without any passage of time --instantaneously!
ReplyDeleteNow thatz the way to traVel!
E alzo saix gbat no object possesing mass cluld reach the speed of light.
But in the above post, electrons and positrons (botb of wch possess mass) reach the speed of light by becoming ligbt!
So objects possezi.g mass can attain the speed of light by dumping their mass and becoming massless! That is, by turning into light!
So lighten up! Dump the mass!..and Shine,Shine,Shine!
In some sense it is meaningless to say that light has a zero rest mass since photons are never at rest. When a photon strikes something, its energy tends to dissipate rather than remain in one location. It tends to either reflect, or it could be absorbed and then re-radiated.
ReplyDeleteSo at the end of the experiment, you don't have it contained in a box to be weighed.
If photons are kicked out of atoms
Deletethis emmision presumably results in a measureable reduction in the mass of the emiting atom. Is it not reasonable to infer that the mass lost by the atom has gone into the photon?
Saying that some of the atom's mass has been transformed into a photon (i.e. has gone into the making of a photon)
is quite differe.t from saying. that tbe mass that has been lost by the atom is now contained in the photon.
The mass has been converted into a burst/packet of energy.
Then again because mass and energy are simply static and kinetic forms of the same thing, in one sense its a distinction witbout a difference!
Ice and wster are different forms of
one molecule--H2O. In its frozen state it has tbe property of solidity;in its liquid form tje proprrty of solidity disappears and previously unmanifest properties of fluidity and wetness etc. emerge.
Tjink of the mass that is stored in atoms as frozen energy.(Atoms are reservoirs of light). When its critical temperature* is reached that stored/potential energy
is released as photons. ..and in this new state tbe property of mass is no longer measureable.(photons are weightless because tbey cant be weighed)
* "the temperature connection"
Light is produced when atoms release stored energy. In fact material atoms are made of energy and all their energy can be released as light(electromagnetic radiation)according to E=mc^2
As a material object's temperature increases, it can radiate at higher energies. At a few hundred degrees above absolute zero, mat objects radiate strongly in the shorter wave infrared. That's why an infrared camera can take your picture at night. Astronomers use infrared light to study the advanced stages of star formation and warm dust ejected by dying stars.
At a few thousand degrees, a body produces visible and even some ultraviolet light (in addition to infrared and radio). The surface temperatures of most stars lie between 3,500° F and 90,000° F (2000° C and 50,000° C) and are, like the heated filaments of light bulbs, powerful emitters in the visible. Cool stars radiate most of their energy in the infrared.
Hot stars radiate mostly in the ultraviolet, so without examination of these spectral bands, astronomers would lack a great deal of important information.
Now boost the temperature to 1 million degrees F (about half a million degrees C) and out pour X rays, and at higher temperatures yet, gamma rays. Thermonuclear reactions at the center of the sun, at 27 million degrees F (15 million degrees C), produce gamma rays that are reduced in energy by their passage through the cooler solar envelope. What begins as a single gamma-ray photon in the Sun's core emerges at the surface as thousands of visible-light photons. Our Sun appears relatively quiescent when viewed in visible light. But an examination in X rays reveals spectacular loops of gas heated to millions of degrees by solar magnetism.
You say that light cannot be stopped, but in your post "matter and light united" you cite
Deletethe work of Lene HAU who brought light to a complete halt in a cloud of ultracold atoms. Next, she restarted the stalled light without changing any of its characteristics, and sent it on its way.
Was she able to weigh it?
DeleteHow it do dat?
ReplyDeleteHow is it that a photon from birth instantaneously has a velocity of 300,000 km/ sec.
How does it go from 0 to 300,000 km/sec in zero time? i.e. without an acceleration period.
In its potential form within yhe atom it has zero velocity... then suddenly it leaves tbe atom at 300,000km/sec
Is that a miracle. ..or what!
Don't know.
DeleteWe accept that photons move through empty space ,...but how?
How do tbey move at 300,000 km/s
without losing energy?
Why do they move at yhis speed?
So much to learn!
The answers are out there!
DeleteWe just have to find them.
Check out “Birth of a Star” by The New York Times -Video on Vimeo.
The video is available for your viewing pleasure at http://vimeo.com/115303012
Atoms release photons of different energies depending on how much heat they are subjected to. As a material object's temperature increases, it can radiate at higher energies.
ReplyDeleteGravity bends light
ReplyDeleteGravity only acts on objects possessing mass
Therefore light has mass
How does light exert force on matter? Light carries energy. That energy exerts force on the material objects it strikes. In other words, light has momentum or "radiation pressure".(electromagnet radiation has momentum)
DeleteIt can move material objects.
Einstein's groundbreaking theory of relativity was further developed in the midst of WWI's chaos, and eventually accepted in 1919 (this year marks the 100th anniversary of its "proof.")
DeleteThe proof came from an expedition led by Cambridge astronomer A.S. Eddington to observe a fleeting solar eclipse, which provided evidence that light has weight/mass.
if photons were massless they would be unaffected by gravity
DeleteIn Black Holes gravity prevents tbe escape of light.
ReplyDeleteGravity only acts on objects witb mass.
Gravity acts on light.
Therefore light has mass.
If lihht had mass, while traveling at c, the mass would become infinite.
DeleteThat's the paradox!
DeleteAccording to Einstein it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate a mass (i.e.any particle possessing mass) to the speed of light.
ReplyDeletethe mystery and paradox of light:
If light is both a wave and a particle
why can it not also both
have mass and be massless?
DeleteE= mc^2 means that energy has mass.
Light also in some conditions behaves as a chunk of matter--a particle possessing mass
If light can materialize into a particle possessing mass,
Deletewbere does the mass come from
if it was not originally part of the photon?
According to the conventional dogma ,no object possessing mass can travel at light speed
DeleteBut light travels at light speed
Therefore we have. to conclude that light/photons have no mass.
But. the mass of a photon can be readily calculated according to the formula : m=e/c2
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"Weight of Memory"
ReplyDeleteby Hari Kumar
When you think of it, it is just data;
patterns recorded in the temporal lobe
-that VCR of grey meat,
shaped like the withered thumb
of a retired boxing glove.
Data is weightless;
when you erase old messages in your mobile phone,
do you expect it to become lighter?
Yet why is it that an old regret
bends your back,and puts lead in your feet?
There must be an erase button somewhere...
discovery that neutrinos have mass wins Nobel prize in physics
ReplyDeleteneutrinos oscillate between wave and particle forms
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/06/kajita-and-mcdonald-win-nobel-physics-prize-for-work-on-neutrinos
advanced info:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/advanced.html
questions remain, including the exact masses of neutrinos and whether different types exist beyond the electron-neutrinos, muon-neutrinos and tau-neutrinos identified so far.
Next to light, neutrinos are the most abundant particle in the universe!
DeleteHow much of the total mass of the universe is in the kinetic form of "light"...and how much is in the static form of matter?
ReplyDeleteCpuld it be that the mystery of "dark energy" might be hiding in plain light; i.e. in the kinetic form of light?