The death of "Modern Physics". Prepair it's funeral!
- Thread starter martillo
- Start date
Ok. Now, given that mass, calculate the mass of a photon based on it's deflection by the sun.
Aer, martillo,
I am certain the photon has no mass (rest mass). But if mass is an alternate explanation as martillo proposes, then I assume it should behave like any particle passing through a gravitational field. See? I don't buy any of it.
I am certain the photon has no mass (rest mass). But if mass is an alternate explanation as martillo proposes, then I assume it should behave like any particle passing through a gravitational field. See? I don't buy any of it.
No.
I mean a... Oh never mind. Photons are massless.
I've never accepted the notion that a photons energy gives it "relativistic mass". If we look at the energy equation, we have:
E=γmc<sup>2</sup>
But for a photon, this equation blows to hell.
γm=0 for a photon no matter how you look at it.
So I've wondered if the actually equation should be something like: E=γ(m+a)c<sup>2</sup> where a somehow accounts for the energy of particle/wave entities such as a photon. But that aside, γ would be undefined for a photon as well, so probably not.
E=γmc<sup>2</sup>
But for a photon, this equation blows to hell.
γm=0 for a photon no matter how you look at it.
So I've wondered if the actually equation should be something like: E=γ(m+a)c<sup>2</sup> where a somehow accounts for the energy of particle/wave entities such as a photon. But that aside, γ would be undefined for a photon as well, so probably not.
martillo:
If you assume the mass of a photon is m=hf/c^2, then you can use Newton's laws to predict how much you would expect light to be bent by a massive body, such as the Sun.
The problem with this is that the Newtonian calculation gives you a value for the bending angle which is exactly half of the actual bending angle, as measured by observations.
General relativity explains the discrepancy.
If you assume the mass of a photon is m=hf/c^2, then you can use Newton's laws to predict how much you would expect light to be bent by a massive body, such as the Sun.
The problem with this is that the Newtonian calculation gives you a value for the bending angle which is exactly half of the actual bending angle, as measured by observations.
General relativity explains the discrepancy.
No. For a photon that equation simply doesn't tell you anything useful. For the photon m=0 and the v in the gamma is equal to c, so gamma goes to infinity and m is zero. What is zero times infinity? In this case, it is a finite number, but the equation doesn't tell you that.