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I hope you aren't suggesting that photons have no mass.

But tachyons do amuse me. I wonder if they have any similar properties to the ones in Trek?

stitch626 wrote:I hope you aren't suggesting that photons have no mass.

Aren't photons massless particles?

stitch626 wrote:But tachyons do amuse me. I wonder if they have any similar properties to the ones in Trek?

Other than the name, you mean?

Lazar wrote:Aren't photons massless particles?

Nope. They are very "light", though.

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

Photons are not massless. Otherwise they couldn't be affected by gravity. Sinse light can be pulled into a black hole, them the particles that comprise light must have some mass, albeit, infintessimal.

That makes sense, but Wikipedia describes it as massless.

Then there's the Higgs boson, which, um... starts with the letter H.

I couldn't imagine them puting 1x10^-10000000000000000000000000000 in such a small area.
*Not the actual mass, but still a big small number.

Also note that it only has mass when it exists (ie, when it is moving). When stationary, it does indeed become massless, but it also ceases to exist. In theory.

Photons have no 'mass' - they have 'relativistic mass'.
They're not the same.

Remember, they are pulled by gravity because of space-time curvature - they just follow the shortest routes along the curved lines, not because of a 'direct' inward pulling force.

Lazar wrote:That makes sense, but Wikipedia describes it as massless.

Then there's the Higgs boson, which, um... starts with the letter H.

Wikipedia, the sum of all human knowledge

Thorin wrote:Photons have no 'mass' - they have 'relativistic mass'.
They're not the same.

Remember, they are pulled by gravity because of space-time curvature - they just follow the shortest routes along the curved lines, not because of a 'direct' inward pulling force.

For the rest of us - photons have "potential" mass inasmuch as m=E/c^2, not mass in the same way as a rock.

From welcoming a new member to a physics discussion.

Shrodinger's Hat, you truly belong to ditl now!

Then why are photon torpedoes called "photon" torpedoes if it's just a m\am explosion?

Because "photon torpedo" just sounds awesome.

They're called photon torpedoes because the energy released by the m/am reaction is manifested as photons

And other quanta, presumably - but of course, "quantum torpedo" was being reserved for an indefinably superior weapon.