- #1
SgrA*
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This is not exactly a homework question.
In a physics textbook, they derive an expression for gravitational redshift of a photon emitted by a star at a large distance from the source by taking photon as a mass traveling up, against a gravitational potential and hence expending its electromagnetic/quantum energy. The mass of the photon is taken to be:
According to that equation, the mass of an X-ray photon of [itex]10^{21} Hz[/itex] would be about 8 times mass of an electron.
Is this treatment appropriate?
PS: I'm aware that the "accepted" derivation for gravitational redshift involves general relativity, but the expression derived in this text is a special case of that expression.
In a physics textbook, they derive an expression for gravitational redshift of a photon emitted by a star at a large distance from the source by taking photon as a mass traveling up, against a gravitational potential and hence expending its electromagnetic/quantum energy. The mass of the photon is taken to be:
[itex]m = \frac{h\nu}{c^{2}}.[/itex]
According to that equation, the mass of an X-ray photon of [itex]10^{21} Hz[/itex] would be about 8 times mass of an electron.
Is this treatment appropriate?
PS: I'm aware that the "accepted" derivation for gravitational redshift involves general relativity, but the expression derived in this text is a special case of that expression.