Special Relativity: Lenght contraction and a photon.

[Ianchez]

Reading an old thread (which is now closed or i would post the question there) there was a discussion about the size of a photon, and if it was an adequate question at all.

The discussion on the other thread couldn't agree on a response. Yet there was some postulates that could work with this idea I am bringing to you now:

In special relativity, one of the effects for a stationary viewer is length contraction, higher the speed, higher the contraction in the direction of the movement.
So, can we assume since a photon travels at maximun velocity, it has maximun contraction?
Maybe that could explain why we can't messure a size in a photon, and its duality? yet we can in an electron?

What would this means? a photon's size would be relative to origin and destination?

Am I talking nonsense? why?

 

[DaveC426913]

An electron is a charged particle. While the electron itself is considered a point, its field extends over a distance. A photon is also a point particle, but has no charge.

 

[bhobba]

These types of questions are all misunderstandings of what relativity says. Relativity is about transformations between inertial frames. You can't attach an inertial frame to a photon since it moves at the speed of light so such musings are meaningless.

Thanks
Bill

 

[wotanub]

Remember length contraction and time dilation do not apply to photons or any particle with a light-like spacetime interval because there does not exist a rest frame for the particle by which to relatively measure time. Boosts to light-like vectors do not rotate them in spacetime.

Photons and electrons do not have sizes as the above poster said, they are point particles.

 

[vanhees71]

You can repeat it as often as you like, but photons are not point particles in any classical sense. They don't even have a well-defined position! I guess, it's really time that I write an Insight article on it!