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ludi_srbin
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How does light travel? What gives the energy to the photons to travel at c? And if in order for something to travel at c you need an infintie amount of energy, how come photon travels at c?
Here is a link to get you started:ludi_srbin said:How does light travel? What gives the energy to the photons to travel at c? And if in order for something to travel at c you need an infintie amount of energy, how come photon travels at c?
εllipse said:To elaborate, it only takes an infinite amount of energy for something to travel the speed of light if it has a rest mass (a mass in its own frame of reference) because relativistic mass increases as speed increases. But for something that doesn't have a rest mass (such as a photon), it has to move at the speed of light in order to even exist at all. (Or atleast, that's what the equations seem to suggest to me. I posted my reasoning behind this here: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=79637 and nobody told me I was wrong so I assume it was correct.)
Light travels in a straight line because it is a type of electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation moves in a straight line, unless it is affected by an outside force like gravity or a magnetic field.
Light travels through space as a wave. It does not require a medium, such as air or water, to travel through. This is why light can travel through the vacuum of space.
The speed of light is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. This is the fastest speed at which anything in the universe can travel.
Photon energy is the energy carried by a single photon, which is a tiny particle of light. This energy is directly proportional to the frequency of the light wave.
When light comes into contact with matter, it can either be absorbed, reflected, or transmitted. The way light interacts with matter depends on the properties of both the light and the matter, such as the color of the light and the material's reflective properties.