How does a photon gets its energy to travel at light speed?

[Lekgolo555]

How does a photon gets its energy to travel at light speed?

 

And if a photon can do it, why cant we?

[iNow]

What an interesting question. Everything is energy. A photon being no exception. Just a different form. Your question of "where" it gets it's energy is almost religious, but gosh, how I despise the idiocy which is religious lack of curiousity.

 

We too are energy. Mass equals energy... if we multiply ourselves by the speed of light squared. What exactly are you asking? Why can't we travel at the speed of light? What is energy? Why do we ask questions beginning with the word why?

 

 

Try Bud dry.

[CPL.Luke]

erm wild erroneous speculations aside, a photon travels at the speed of light because thats the only speed that it can travel at, which is related to the fact that it lacks mass.

 

I believe that there are some more theoretically satisfactory explanations, it would be interesting to here from some of the particle physicists on the board.

[Klaynos]

The permittivity and permeability of free space limit the speed of light to c.

 

Massive objects (things with non-zero rest mass) cannot travel at c due to special relativity, it would take infinite energy to archive that speed.

[insane_alien]

it would take infinite energy to archive that speed.

emphasis mine.

 

it would also take infinite to achieve that speed as well.

[BenTheMan]

Photons are massless, and all massless particles travel at the speed of light.

[CPL.Luke]

yes but is there any theoretical explanation as to why a massless particle travels at C, and not say .5 c, I know that if that were really the case than the speed of light wouldnt be what it is, but is there any theoretical reason as to why c is c?

[Sisyphus]

is there any theoretical reason as to why c is c?

 

No, I don't think so. It's just a fundamental constant, a property of the universe itself. Actually, I'm not even sure if it would make sense to talk about it having a different value, since the definitions of speed and how we experience speed, i.e. distance over time, etc., all seem to fall out of it and be a consequence of it. Make .5C the new C, and everything slows down, including the clocks, so it's the same as if nothing slowed down.

 

That's just speculation, though, so don't take me too seriously if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about.....

[JackMuChabas]

...properly. A light quanta a is the sum of it's energy and the sum of it's wavelength also. They cannot be medianed nor can they be averaged. I am going to use made up word since I feel no of the words in calculus suffice. What I am saying is. In a quantuum effect field given a diastatic-overturing faction given it's manner and poloar weight given a time index given a saturation given a force given a hex diagonal loop quantity given a weight of time against a given of nomenclature not known at this time to you because the nomenclature is my own concoction given it's purpose to explain quantuum theory and given it's ability to demaster the calculus false postives.

 

 

 

a=a(b*b)*(b+2)*(b+1)*a^11 given a transferrance that has been annihilated by a given particle a=a(b*2(b*3)(b*5)(b*6)(b*7)(b*8)(b*9)(b*10)(b*11)(b*12) given a annihilated particle stream on a quantrained not deficient not assembled not given to the future participle either.

 

This is a nomenclature I would like to upload to the forum. I will write it out then scan my theories into the pages of the forum for your examination so I can be peer reviewed.

Please to baste me and waste me if you would like. I know all scientists use calculus but not all are satisfied with it's nomenclature.

[swansont]

...properly. A light quanta a is the sum of it's energy and the sum of it's wavelength also. They cannot be medianed nor can they be averaged. I am going to use made up word since I feel no of the words in calculus suffice. What I am saying is. In a quantuum effect field given a diastatic-overturing faction given it's manner and poloar weight given a time index given a saturation given a force given a hex diagonal loop quantity given a weight of time against a given of nomenclature not known at this time to you because the nomenclature is my own concoction given it's purpose to explain quantuum theory and given it's ability to demaster the calculus false postives.

 

 

 

a=a(b*b)*(b+2)*(b+1)*a^11 given a transferrance that has been annihilated by a given particle a=a(b*2(b*3)(b*5)(b*6)(b*7)(b*8)(b*9)(b*10)(b*11)(b*12) given a annihilated particle stream on a quantrained not deficient not assembled not given to the future participle either.

 

This is a nomenclature I would like to upload to the forum. I will write it out then scan my theories into the pages of the forum for your examination so I can be peer reviewed.

Please to baste me and waste me if you would like. I know all scientists use calculus but not all are satisfied with it's nomenclature.

 

Non-mainstream physics (or any "alternative" science) belongs in speculations. Please don't hijack threads with this type of stuff. You got your own ideas on how things work, take it to speculations.

[joshuam168]

ok here goes. correct me if im wrong. a photon travels the speed of light. for us to gain that energy, not saying its possible, and travel at the speed of light we would have to become photons, therefore we wouldnt be "ourselves" we'd just be a lot of photons. like when a photon encounters a singularity, it is stripped of energy until it becomes almost nothing, therefore it doesnt travel at c anymore. For those hawkings buffs im sorry but hes an idiot, the information paradox contradicts the very fundamentals that physics rests on.

[iNow]

For those hawkings buffs im sorry but hes an idiot, the information paradox contradicts the very fundamentals that physics rests on.

While this particular proposal of his may be wrong, I do believe calling him an idiot may be a rather extreme and difficult to support position.

 

 

At least Lou Gehrig got to play pro-ball.

[swansont]

ok here goes. correct me if im wrong. a photon travels the speed of light. for us to gain that energy, not saying its possible, and travel at the speed of light we would have to become photons, therefore we wouldnt be "ourselves" we'd just be a lot of photons.

 

Gaining the energy of a photon and going at the speed of light are two separate issues. I can have the kinetic energy of billion of photons just reaching for a beer, but I will never travel at c, because I have mass (mostly from all the beer). Photons travel at c, because that's all they can do; that's how E and B field oscillations behave.

[JackMuChabas]

Yes. I will have this deleted immediatlely. I apologize. Hmmm. Too much screwin' around with the old wacky tobacco.

 

Maybe I should ask a question. If light doesn't have mass then how can it exist?

[Lekgolo555]

OK let me rephrase this questions

 

How does a photon reach the speed of light?

 

It just pops out of an atom when an electron changes levels right?

 

it is a particle, so it must have received energy from something or somewhere.

 

If something is moving some force must be acting on it to cause it to move.

 

What causes photons to move at the speed of light?

[timo]

OK let me rephrase this questions

 

How does a photon reach the speed of light?

dunno how to answer that.

 

It just pops out of an atom when an electron changes levels right?

You can see it this way but that doesn't mean the photon acutally was part of the atom. What happens is that the electromagnetic field interacts with the atom with the result that the atom gets de-excited and the electromagnetic field is excited by one photon.

 

it is a particle, so it must have received energy from something or somewhere.

From the interaction process with the atom.

 

If something is moving some force must be acting on it to cause it to move.

No. We're past that idea for at least a few hundred years by now. In fact, if something moves and no force acts on it, it will continue to move unhinderedly.

 

What causes photons to move at the speed of light?

Its special relation between wavelength and frequency.

[Lekgolo555]

^^^

 

Are you saying that the photon was already moving?

 

In the very beginning some force must be acting on it right?

 

What is that force?

[timo]

Are you saying that the photon was already moving?

 

In the very beginning ...

I don't exactly know what time is meant by "in the very beginning" but I suspect you're talking about "right after the photon is created". Anyways: If you stay in the classical picture, then when a particle is created it must start with some velocity (zero is also a velocity). Why not the speed of light in the case of light? The initial velocity is actually determined by conservation of energy and momentum.

 

some force must be acting on it right?

What is that force?

The force that governs the creation of a photon from de-exitation of an atom is the electromagnetic force. Yet, there is no force acting on the photon. Actually, the photon is the "force particle" (that's not really the term, but forces in the sense of F=m*a are not really a concept of modern physics, anyways) of the electromagnetic force itself. I can understand why you have problems understanding that, but the point is that the physics you are probably familiar with misses two important aspect necessary for understanding photons:

- It does not describe massless particles.

- It does not describe the quantization of the electromagnetic field. The closest you get to a photon is an electromagnetic wave like a radio wave. Admittedly, that's already very close to the actual concept of a photon. So perhaps it's easiest to think of it as a normal EM-wave.

[pioneer]

One way to look at the speed of light of energy is that this is its ground state, i.e., C is the zero state of energy. When a force like EM acts, the potential energy of the system lowers. This movement toward the ground state of zero potential energy produces energy. The EM force achieves the ground state piece-meal until the final cancelling of charge, then there is only energy, i.e., force potential is zero at only energy. Only energy is the state of lowest potential. Mass and charge contain potential energy and force potential and are actually at a state of higher potential. Force acts as a way to lower this potential energy back to only C and C reference.

[swansont]

One way to look at the speed of light of energy is that this is its ground state, i.e., C is the zero state of energy. When a force like EM acts, the potential energy of the system lowers. This movement toward the ground state of zero potential energy produces energy. The EM force achieves the ground state piece-meal until the final cancelling of charge, then there is only energy, i.e., force potential is zero at only energy. Only energy is the state of lowest potential. Mass and charge contain potential energy and force potential and are actually at a state of higher potential. Force acts as a way to lower this potential energy back to only C and C reference.

 

Please read post #10 in this thread.

[pioneer]

I don't mean to speculate, so here is my logic. If we try to get matter to C there are only two ways. The first way is forbidden, which is add enough energy so the matter travels directly at C. This causes relativisitic mass to reach infinity. But this doesn't decrease the mass potential but adds to it. The only way left is for matter to lower potential is to give off energy. The movement toward lower matter potential ends with some C output. When all the matter is gone all we have is energy and little need for the force potentials of matter. All that there is left is energy. This still has some potential and will only reach zero potential when the wavelengths all reach infinity. This is the only wavelength that fully overlaps a speed of light reference. At C it looks like infinity is pulled into us, such that infinite wavelength is the only one that can overlap this in one cycle.

 

Infinite wavelength energy is not energy. The reason this is so is that infinite (wavelength) divided by zero frequency does not equal the speed of light. It is a mathematical discontinuity that is not a constant. What that means is infinite wavelength energy travels at C, has no mass, no energy, since it is not energy per se. While an infinite number of these will amount to nothing in terms of mass/energy. Their only impact may be to maintain C reference as the lowest potential state or ground zero.