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1 day ago · A photon is the most basic, discrete packet of energy that light or any electromagnetic wave can exist in. It is an elementary particle with no mass and no electric charge, yet it carries both energy and momentum, allowing it to travel through space and interact with matter. Historical Development
A photon (from Ancient Greek φῶς, φωτός (phôs, phōtós) 'light') is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that always move at the speed of light ...
Photons represent the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. This includes radio waves, gamma-rays, and visible light. Like many other particles governed by quantum mechanics, photons have the characteristics of both waves and particles. Photons travel in a wave-like fashion, in which the local electric and magnetic field oscillates in ...
Jun 27, 2024 · Photons are elementary particles that act as the fundamental carriers of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. They are unique because they have no mass and always travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. Photons exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties, a dual nature that is central to the field of quantum mechanics.
- Photon Properties
- Word Origin
- Photon Symbol
- History
- How Are Photons produced?
- How to Calculate The Energy of A Photon
- References
Photons have the following properties: 1. A photon has zero rest mass. However, because it is moving, it has momentum. So, while packets of light have no mass, they can exert pressure. A photon’s momentum is hν/c, where h is Planck’s constant, ν is the photon’s frequency, and cis the speed of light. 2. A photon has no electrical charge. It is not d...
The name “photon” comes from the Greek word for light, phôs. Gilbert Newton Lewis coined the term in his December 1926 letter to Nature. However, it had been used by physicists and physiologists prior to this date, mainly referring to the illumination of the eye. Arthur Compton popularized the term in his work, giving Lewis credit for the word.
The Greek letter gamma (γ) is the symbol for the photon, probably deriving from work on gamma rays, which were discovered by Paul Villard in 1900. Gamma decay releases photons. The symbol hν refers to photon energy, where h is Planck’s constant and the Greek letter nu (ν) is the photon frequency. Another symbol is hf, where fis the photon frequency...
The concept of the photon arose from Albert Einstein’s proposed explanation for the photoelectric effect in 1905. The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when light strikes a material. Einstein said that the effect was explainable, providing light behaved as a group of discrete (quantized) energy packets rather than solely as a wave. ...
Photons arise as a result of both spontaneous and stimulated emission. Some types of radioactive decay (e.g., gamma and beta decay) release photons, as do particle interactions. Accelerating a charged particle causes photon emission as synchrotron radiation. The annihilation of a particle and its antiparticle (e.g., an electron and positron) result...
There are two main equations for calculating the energy of a photon: E = hν Here, E is the photon energy, h is Planck’s constant, and νis the photon frequency. E = hc / λ Here, E is photon energy, h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of light, and λis the photon wavelength.
Alonso, M.; Finn, E.J. (1968). Fundamental University Physics. Vol. III: Quantum and Statistical Physics. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-00262-1.Feynman, Richard (1985). QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12575-6.Halliday, David; Resnick, Robert; Walker, Jerl (2005). Fundamental of Physics(7th ed.). John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-23231-5.Lakes, Roderic (1998). “Experimental Limits on the Photon Mass and Cosmic Magnetic Vector Potential”. Physical Review Letters. 80 (9): 1826. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1826Dec 21, 2023 · When two electrons interact, they exchange a photon, the particle of light. (Image: Ana Tovar/CERN) Across the electromagnetic spectrum, photons serve as an omnipresent probe and tool with broad research and practical applications. Low energy radio photons transmit information through fiber optic cables and free space.
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The answer, ultimately offered by quantum physics when it burst onto the scene in the 20th century, was: “It’s kind of both.”. On the particle side, we now know that light (which includes radio transmissions, sunlight, microwaves and even x-rays) is made from bundles of energy called photons. One photon is the smallest flicker of light ...
