Do photons have mass and how does it affect their existence?

In summary, photons are massless particles that exist in spacetime and follow the appropriate paths through it. They have energy and momentum, but no mass. This explains why they do not escape from black holes, as their paths are bent by the black hole's gravity. If one adopts a quantum particle interpretation, photons can be seen as having zero invariant mass.
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superkraken
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this is the first time I am learning about photons and i have asmall doubt.
if photons are massless then how come light dosent escape from black holes.
or if they do have mass the by the eqn m=m0/(1-V2/c2)then theyll have infinite mass and turning on a torch may be like getting hit by a bullet train.so how do photons actually exist.with mass or without it?
 
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  • #2
superkraken said:
if photons are massless then how come light dosent escape from black holes.

Because they still exist in spacetime and thus have to follow the appropriate paths through spacetime. A black hole bends spacetime in such a way that ALL paths through spacetime lead further into the black hole.

That's a bare minimum explanation, and if you want to know more I encourage you to look into relativity.

superkraken said:
so how do photons actually exist.with mass or without it?

They have no mass, but they still have energy and momentum. Einstein's full equation is: e2 = m2c4 + p2c2

The term which includes mass is zero for photons, but the second is not, and reduces to: e=pc
 
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  • #3
superkraken said:
this is the first time I am learning about photons and i have asmall doubt.
if photons are massless then how come light dosent escape from black holes.
or if they do have mass the by the eqn m=m0/(1-V2/c2)then theyll have infinite mass and turning on a torch may be like getting hit by a bullet train.so how do photons actually exist.with mass or without it?

Photons are quantum objects, elementary lumps of energy of the electromagnetic field. As of such, they have a hard time sharing classical particle properties (like position). If one still adopts a quantum particle interpretation of the uni-photon states, then these objects are massless, i.e. zero invariant mass.
When one forcibly puts photons in black holes, they do escape, as far as I know.
 

1. What is the mass of a photon?

According to current scientific understanding, photons do not have a rest mass. This means that they do not possess mass in the traditional sense, as they are not made up of particles. However, they do have energy and momentum, which can be considered as equivalent to mass.

2. How do we measure the mass of photons?

Since photons do not have rest mass, they cannot be measured in the same way as particles with mass. Instead, their energy and momentum can be measured using various methods, such as spectroscopy and particle accelerators.

3. Can photons have a non-zero mass?

Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that photons have a rest mass. However, some theories, such as string theory, suggest that photons may have a non-zero mass at very high energies or in certain conditions. This is still a topic of ongoing research and debate in the scientific community.

4. How does the mass of photons affect their behavior?

The lack of rest mass in photons allows them to travel at the speed of light and exhibit wave-like properties, such as diffraction and interference. It also means that they can only interact with matter through the electromagnetic force, making them massless particles with unique behaviors.

5. Can photons have different masses?

No, all photons are considered to be massless particles. This is because they all travel at the speed of light and have the same amount of energy, regardless of their frequency or wavelength. However, photons can have different amounts of energy and momentum, which can affect their interactions with matter.

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