How can light accelerate to such a huge velocity?

[aby001234]

I mean if light has relative mass
which makes its mass near to infinity,
then from where does it get the energy
to accelerate such a heavy thing to such a
huge velocity?

 

[DaveC426913]

Photons have zero mass. That's why they can - and must - move at c. They do have momentum, due to their velocity.

(http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/relmom.html - "Momentum of Photon" - halfway down the page)

Photons do not accelerate. They move at c from emission to absorption.

 

[OmCheeto]

Photons have zero mass. That's why they can - and must - move at c. They do have momentum, due to their velocity.

(http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/relmom.html - "Momentum of Photon" - halfway down the page)

Photons do not accelerate. They move at c from emission to absorption.

Has that been proven?

It would be interesting to see an experiment to see if there were recoil from the generation of a photon from a hydrogen atom electron orbital change.

zero to c in a Planck moment.

hmmm...

never mind.

One Planck time is the time it would take a photon traveling at the speed of light to cross a distance equal to one Planck length. Theoretically, this is the smallest time measurement that will ever be possible,[3] roughly 10−43 seconds. Within the framework of the laws of physics as we understand them today, for times less than one Planck time apart, we can neither measure nor detect any change. As of May 2010, the smallest time interval that was directly measured was on the order of 12 attoseconds (12 × 10−18 seconds),[4] about 1024 times larger than the Planck time.

I can't imagine anything that tiny.

But then again, maybe the photon was always there, traveling at the speed of light, and was simply manifesting itself as the particle we observed before, in some twisted poly-dimensional world we will never comprehend.

But then again, maybe I should go to bed.

 

[Lsos]

It would be interesting to see an experiment to see if there were recoil from the generation of a photon from a hydrogen atom electron orbital change.

There IS a recoil, although so tiny that we can't imagine it.

 

[sardar]

I can provide an explanation for how light can accelerate to such a huge velocity despite having a relatively small mass. First, it is important to understand that light does not have a rest mass like other particles. Its mass is a result of its energy, as described by Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2. This means that light's mass is not "heavy" in the traditional sense, but rather a manifestation of its energy.

Secondly, light travels at a constant speed in a vacuum, which is known as the speed of light (c). This speed is the maximum velocity that any object can reach in the universe. It is not possible for light to accelerate beyond this speed, as it would require an infinite amount of energy, which is not possible.

So how does light reach this maximum velocity? Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, and it is composed of particles called photons. These photons do not have rest mass, but they do have energy and momentum. When they are emitted by a source, such as the sun, they travel at the speed of light from the start. This is because they are massless particles and do not require any energy to reach this speed.

In summary, light's mass is not a traditional mass like other particles, and it does not require energy to reach its maximum velocity. Its speed is a fundamental property of the universe, and its mass is a result of its energy. I hope this explanation helps to clarify any confusion about how light can accelerate to such a huge velocity.