▲ 654 ▼ The speed of light (mander.xyz) submitted 5 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz 123 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] spacehulk@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 months ago (6 children) If they have no mass, how do they push solar sails? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] ttayh@lemmy.zip 17 points 5 months ago* They have momentum, but not mass (ignore the other explanation, like yes, E=sqrt(m0^2 c^4 + (pc)^2), but so what? m0=0 for photons) As you can see, momentum, p, is p=E/c, and we know that the energy for light is proportional to its frequency, f, E=hf (h is Plank's constant). So, p=hf/c. When light is absorbed by a material momentum (and energy) conservation apply and it imparts p onto the object. If light is reflected it imparts 2*p, showing this is left as an exercize to the reader permalink fedilink source parent [+] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -6 points 5 months ago (4 children) They have mass. Everything that has energy has mass. They don't have inertial mass but it's just part of the equation permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Zink@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago I think you are stating that backwards. You can definitely say that everything with mass has energy. And yeah the two are kind of interchangeable. But that does not mean that a photon HAS mass. It just means that we can calculate how much mass its energy is equivalent to. permalink fedilink source parent [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago (2 children) They have momentum, not mass, in relativistic physics you need something more complex than p=mv to describe momentum. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (1 child) Energy=mass always. Theoretically you can make a black hole out of light, or you can turn that photon energy into inertial mass by running light in a closed loop. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago No lol, there's a momentum component to that equation which is just conveniently 0 for massive objects at rest, photons don't have a rest reference frame and are governed by E=pc. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ttayh@lemmy.zip 17 points 5 months ago* They have momentum, but not mass (ignore the other explanation, like yes, E=sqrt(m0^2 c^4 + (pc)^2), but so what? m0=0 for photons) As you can see, momentum, p, is p=E/c, and we know that the energy for light is proportional to its frequency, f, E=hf (h is Plank's constant). So, p=hf/c. When light is absorbed by a material momentum (and energy) conservation apply and it imparts p onto the object. If light is reflected it imparts 2*p, showing this is left as an exercize to the reader permalink fedilink source parent
[+] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -6 points 5 months ago (4 children) They have mass. Everything that has energy has mass. They don't have inertial mass but it's just part of the equation permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Zink@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago I think you are stating that backwards. You can definitely say that everything with mass has energy. And yeah the two are kind of interchangeable. But that does not mean that a photon HAS mass. It just means that we can calculate how much mass its energy is equivalent to. permalink fedilink source parent [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago (2 children) They have momentum, not mass, in relativistic physics you need something more complex than p=mv to describe momentum. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (1 child) Energy=mass always. Theoretically you can make a black hole out of light, or you can turn that photon energy into inertial mass by running light in a closed loop. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago No lol, there's a momentum component to that equation which is just conveniently 0 for massive objects at rest, photons don't have a rest reference frame and are governed by E=pc. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Zink@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago I think you are stating that backwards. You can definitely say that everything with mass has energy. And yeah the two are kind of interchangeable. But that does not mean that a photon HAS mass. It just means that we can calculate how much mass its energy is equivalent to. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago (2 children) They have momentum, not mass, in relativistic physics you need something more complex than p=mv to describe momentum. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (1 child) Energy=mass always. Theoretically you can make a black hole out of light, or you can turn that photon energy into inertial mass by running light in a closed loop. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago No lol, there's a momentum component to that equation which is just conveniently 0 for massive objects at rest, photons don't have a rest reference frame and are governed by E=pc. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (1 child) Energy=mass always. Theoretically you can make a black hole out of light, or you can turn that photon energy into inertial mass by running light in a closed loop. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago No lol, there's a momentum component to that equation which is just conveniently 0 for massive objects at rest, photons don't have a rest reference frame and are governed by E=pc. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago No lol, there's a momentum component to that equation which is just conveniently 0 for massive objects at rest, photons don't have a rest reference frame and are governed by E=pc. permalink fedilink source parent