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Re: photons...
In wording that "what gives photons the energy", I wonder if the intent was to ask where the energy came from. There is always a source of the energy. If an electron in an atom drops to a lower energy state, for example, making a transition from the n=2 quantum number to the n=1 quantum number, it emits one photon. A nucleus that is in an excited state sometimes falls to a lower energy state, and gives off a gamma ray. An x-ray is given off when a moving electron hits a metal and loses its kinetic energy.
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