Why does a photon have no mass?
A photon is a particle that is an elementary particle of light. It is the particle of light, which is an electromagnetic wave. It is one of the two elementary particles of the standard model of particle physics, the other being the electron. Because it has no mass, a photon does not experience the force of gravity, the strong force, the weak force or any other force we are aware of.
Why does a photon have no rest mass?
In 1905, Albert Einstein proposed that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa. This phenomenon, known as the equivalence of mass and energy, is known as E=mc². If a particle has no rest mass, it implies that it can be converted into pure energy. This means that a photon has no mass because it can convert into pure energy.
Why does a photon not have mass?
If you are wondering why a photon has no mass, then you are not alone. We are all wondering about this. Few physicists are willing to accept that the photon is massless; most of them are not satisfied with the current explanations. The problem is that the quantum field theory, which is the best known theory of the photon, does not provide a direct answer.
Why is a photon massless?
That a photon has no mass is a consequence of the famous “Einstein’s equation” E=mc^2, which states that energy is equivalent to mass. This equation is very important because it shows that mass and energy are different aspects of the same thing: mass is equivalent to the energy of motion, while energy is equivalent to the amount of matter (or “stuff”) a particle contains.
Why a photon has zero mass?
According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, in any inertial frame, all observers would measure the same speed for light regardless of its source, as it travels at the same speed in all frames. This is known as the principle of absolute invariance of light speed. It implies that the photon has no mass, because if it had mass, then in order to remain at the same speed as the light source, the photon would need to travel at a different speed in different frames, a