How do photons cause matter to move?

[Eash]

How does light cause matter to move? For example, when a photon collides with an atom, an electron absorbs the photon and moves to a higher energy state. If the energy is not used then the electron falls back to a lower energy state and emits radiation. I am unsure of how the photon in the above example causes the motion of an atom. A more specific question is how does sunlight increase temperature, or speed up the motion of the gas particles in the atmosphere.

 

[Drakkith]

Light is an EM wave whose fields have what's called vectors. This means that an electric charge that the wave passes over will feel a force from the electric field of the EM wave in a particular direction. It is this force that causes an interaction. Each individual interaction takes a specific amount of energy based on the frequency of the wave. We call these "photons".