How weird is a photon?

[josephpalazzo]

If a photon had perspective, it would see no time and no space. As a particle of zero mass, everything to a photon is instantaneously at the same point. It never experience time or travelling. The  'here' and 'there' are in the same place, and you depart and arrive at the same time without traveling. Cool... hmm, not really, more like boring...

[AllPurposeAtheist]

If a photon had perspective, it would see no time and no space. As a particle of zero mass, everything to a photon is instantaneously at the same point. It never experience time or travelling. The  'here' and 'there' are in the same place, and you depart and arrive at the same time without traveling. Cool... hmm, not really, more like boring...

See just how easy it was to describe the Sarah Palin speech to endorse Donny tRump? Uncanny!

[SGOS]

I know a little about what photons do, but I have no idea what they actually are.

[josephpalazzo]

I know a little about what photons do, but I have no idea what they actually are.

Besides moving at the speed c, they have energy, spin and mediate the electromagnetic force. That's it. I don't think you can reduce a photon to anything simpler.

[stromboli]

If a photon had perspective, it would see no time and no space. As a particle of zero mass, everything to a photon is instantaneously at the same point. It never experience time or travelling. The  'here' and 'there' are in the same place, and you depart and arrive at the same time without traveling. Cool... hmm, not really, more like boring...

Remove the zero mass part and you just described 3 of my neighbors.

[Sal1981]

Photons have fascinating qualities when interacting with an electron around an atom. They excite electrons orbit around an atom when hitting and being "absorbed" increasing their energy and orbit around the atom (if they have the necessary energy to excite the electron, that is, otherwise they pass right through.) But how does this really happen, as in terms of the language used? No fucking idea.

[kilodelta]

Photons are fucking weird as motherfucking fuck. But, they're so useful... and dangerous.

[SGOS]

they're so useful... and dangerous.

That's probably why the Enterprise seemed to have an unlimited supply of photon torpedoes on board.

[josephpalazzo]

Photons are fucking weird as motherfucking fuck. But, they're so useful... and dangerous.

Genesis 1:3 God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.

[kilodelta]

Genesis 1:3 God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.

'Let there be gamma radiation,' and there was the Hulk.

[surreptitious57]

Now it takes eight minutes and seventeen seconds for a photon to travel ninety three million
miles from the Sun to the Earth from our external frame of reference. But for the photon the
distance like any other is travelled instantly. So reality really is not what we perceive it to be

[josephpalazzo]

Now it takes eight minutes and seventeen seconds for a photon to travel ninety three million
miles from the Sun to the Earth from our external frame of reference. But for the photon the
distance like any other is travelled instantly. So reality really is not what we perceive it to be

The photon doesn't have a mind so it doesn't perceive anything. And we can't travel on a photon, we can only imagine it.

[Baruch]

Now it takes eight minutes and seventeen seconds for a photon to travel ninety three million
miles from the Sun to the Earth from our external frame of reference. But for the photon the
distance like any other is travelled instantly. So reality really is not what we perceive it to be

Objectivity has proven to be less obvious since Relativity and QM.  That so many of our grandparents objected to these, is understandable.  Even Einstein objected to QM.  And Relativity hasn't been fully incorporated into QM yet (missing the gravity part, in spite of the Higgs).  Photons get worse ... in one interpretation (classical EM has problems, not just QM) ... a photon can't decide if it is going forward or backward in time ... it is doing both light cones (at the same time of course, in no time at all).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelerâ€"Feynman_absorber_theory

It gets down to a concept that reappears with the Higgs (broken symmetry).  An equation can have particular symmetries, and these symmetries are crucial to explain the elementary particles (mostly).  But the solutions may or may not have the same symmetries.  That the EM/QM equations are time/time-reversal symmetric ... is a philosophical problem given the thermodynamic laws and human experience of time.  But the question remains, are some or all solutions to the equations with the same symmetry?  Not necessarily.  If in this case, they are the same, then you have "absorber_theory".

In Standard Theory QM ... the idea that the solutions are not the same symmetry as the original equation ... is a broken symmetry, conceptually required for the current version of Higgs.  If symmetry is preserved (maybe not just time, but all or part of CPT) then all the masses in Standard Theory are zero ... and it has no explanatory power for mass.  If symmetry is broken, it isn't broken uniquely ... hence the need to measure the mass of the Higgs.  If there are more than one Higgs, or its properties are different that expected (as hoped to be demonstrated soon in the 2x LHC) then mods to the theory are required, and physicists love to be forced to make new mods based on actual data ... mathematical beauty isn't enough.

And yes, even in science, reality isn't what it seems to be.  Even Nature hides, not just G-d.

Joe - he was making an analogy.  Physics uses all sorts of frames of reference that are not-humanly possible ... just imaginable.  Einstein was good at that ... he really didn't ride the Bern cable-car at 0.9 C ;-)

[josephpalazzo]

... (sniping the crappy stuff)

Joe - he was making an analogy.  Physics uses all sorts of frames of reference that are not-humanly possible ... just imaginable.  Einstein was good at that ... he really didn't ride the Bern cable-car at 0.9 C ;-)

Einstein was able to imagine stuff that led to real solutions. OTOH, I can't say the same about your posts.

[surreptitious57]

We cannot see radiation
We cannot see dark matter
We cannot see atoms or particles
We cannot see x rays or gamma rays 
We cannot see ultra violet or infra red light
We cannot see through non transparent matter
We can only see a tiny section of the light spectrum
And so what we see and what is there are not the same