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Re: Questioning Light

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Posted by yanniru/">yanniru on May 26, 1999 19:13:18 UTC

: Does light have mass??? Of corse not? However I was thinking about the hizen-burg (I'm not a good speller) : wave-particle relation. : For example an apple has mass and wave properties. We see the particle side more than the wave side but it is there. An electron has mass and paritle nature. We see mostly the wave side. : My point is that a photon behaves like a particle and a wave. Maybe a photon has mass but so little we can't detect it.....Maybe not. : Does any one know of the sure test that proved without a shadow of a dought that a photon has no mass. : Or does it relate to the zero rest mass and apparnt : mass with its velocity....

Chuck: My view is that particles are collapsed wave functions and fields are uncollapsed quantum wave functions. So light is generally in the state of being electromagnetic waves or the electromagnetic field in its free form. What we see or detect is the collapsed version of light called photons. Light or photons or electromagnetic fields are forces or bosons and are normally massless. But some kinds of force have mass. However, whether the force or matter has mass or not, they both have a wave-like nature and a particle nature. The wavelike nature is invisible to us. We can infer its existence by observing interference effects of waves, both light waves and matter waves. Nonetheless, our direct experience is only with collapsed waves or particles, as any form of detection necessarily collapses the waves.

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